Showing posts with label homemade. Show all posts
Showing posts with label homemade. Show all posts

10 November 2014

Speaking of holidays...

December is a HUGE month for us. Jacob's birthday, the boys' birthday, Christmas, New Years, friends and family visiting, the parties and BBQs that happen almost every single weekend... Huge.

I'm starting early. Sort of. I started making bows - last year! But I have a list a mile long of everything else I need to do... How about you?


And speaking of chaos...


Have a great Monday!!
xx

11 January 2012

An afternoon in the kitchen..

After a bit of a windy, hilly walk with the dog-boys and a quick stop off to the fish and chip shop, I came home to a free afternoon to do some cooking. 

We've been trying out a couple different organics deliveries and had a couple problems with the one we liked, but we are back to using Commonsense Organics which have been good in a pinch. After some rearranging of fruit and veg, I realised that we've had a lot of citrus to use. So... out with the good old Juice-O-Matic!!! 

This is my favourite kitchen tool ever! I think I've had it since I was about 21. I have my lovely high-school friend to thank. She would be the one that got me interested in antiques and all things vintage. One year for Christmas, I decided to seek out an old juicer for her. For some reason in my mind, it had to be red and chrome and stylish beyond all reason. After about two weeks of searching all the local shops, I found it! It was gorgeous and I was secretly gutted to have to part with it. 

When Christmas came around, we exchanged gifts and I was so excited for her to open her fancy juicer! She opened it, looked at me, laughed, told me to open my gift. I opened it to find something red, chrome and stylish beyond all reason! Yes... it was the Juice-O-Matic!

How funny.. we had basically sought out and purchased the same gifts for each other. But of course, at that age, we were completely convinced we were psychically connected, could read each others minds and thought dating twins was the best idea we had ever had. We were awesome in our early-twenty-somethings.

Anyway, the rest of my afternoon was something completely new! I made fresh pasta for the first time! 

Fresh homemade pasta, homemade sauce and meatballs! So yum! It was one of those moments where I was rather proud of myself! Making pasta is a bit liberating!

I'll have to have a few more attempts at it until I'm completely comfortable with it, but if you have a pasta maker, use it!!





21 February 2011

Herby Goodness!

At first, J thought I was nuts... 

A small collection of jars. A medium collection of jars. 

Now, a massive collection, being used to make herb infused oils, tinctures, salves, astringent toners, hair tonics, and soon - SOAP and LOTIONS!



One of the best parts about this whole process, all of the herbs I'm using are from our garden! That is one of the most satisfying parts. Really! (That and using my awesome Lemon Balm and Lavender Toner! Heavenly!)

Since we have had so much rain in the last few months - Summer? What Summer? - everything has gone being going crazy in the garden! We have tomatoes that have mysteriously appeared, as well as some pumpkins and zucchinis that are almost the size of the calf... a couple different kinds of beans, cucumbers, the list goes on!

This year, I was so lucky to have a good base of herbs. The mint was already going crazy in a bed, but I transferred it to an old lemon tree pot and it's taken off even better than before. It's so healthy and loves to be cut back. The lemon balm, calendula, and the lavender are doing beautifully. The rosemary and thyme coming along nicely for their first season. Even the Goji Berry plant has finally shown us some life - and some berries!

This is been one of the BEST growing seasons in ages! I hope everyone else has had great success as well!