Pantry done!

One big thing that I can cross off my list. I did it in fifteen minutes bursts over the weekend and I am always amazed at how much can be done in just fifteen minutes.

I filled the bin a couple of times some out of date things, couple of things I don't remember buying so I am thinking/blaming/assuming the house sitters left it here.

Now that is it clean, tidy and packed in properly, I cant believe how much space there is, I do kept other things in the pantry that are not food and even with that, there is room left over. We don't use a lot of tinned or packaged foods so I suppose that is why it looks half empty

Many of my recipe books are packed ready to go the op shop, I have kept all my Jamie Oliver ones and Symply too good to be true ones and a Four ingredient one that has been signed. Recipe books have been living in there but rarely touched or used so time to go, some-one may make use of them. Of course my two thermomix ones have pride of place but they are now residing in the pantry instead of on the bench.

Monday and normal house hold chores today then I want to get some sewing done. I plan to make a tote bag for myself but I want it smaller than the last one so I will have to adjust the pattern.

Pumpkin pies

I made these for lunch today with some salad. I am looking for ideas to make and take to the beach for Christmas lunch so I am trailing some new things.

I made twelve and after lunch only six are left.

Roasted some pumpkin while that was cooking, I sliced a piece of red caps, a spring onion and three mushrooms.

Added a handful of grated cheese, couple of spoonfuls of ricotta and a glug of sweet chilli sauce.

One and a half sheets of puff pastry filled the bottom of a muffin tray .

Ten minutes in the oven. A nice light lunch which should transport well. I know I will eat them even if no-one else does.

Now to find some other things to make for the Christmas menu.

Jamie Oliver did a great looking salad with whole prawns the other night, think i will have to give that a go.

Our days are numbered!

It has finally hit that we are leaving soon, very soon. I asked Warren to make a chart with the days left to go.

He went to office works and bought a big calendar. I think it is in 37 days!

We have a list of things down the side that we need/want to do before we leave.

I intend to clean out the pantry.

As I was up early this morning, too early to go to the shopping centre, I had some parcels to send, I made a start doing one half a shelf.

I "found" a bottle of cherry sauce, this is good stuff and can only buy it at the source (no pun intended) and the last time we travelled south we bought six bottles. This is the last and I think I have been saving it. Use by date is Dec 2014!

I also pitched some wraps that had gone dry and some coconut flour which doesn't seem to work for me. 

I envy women who have their pantries just so neat, mine is never neat. A shopping trip sees things put where ever they can fit although there is some rules. I have a special place for our milk and the paper products like gladwrap, foil and baking paper.

"My" car needs a road worthy done and that is on the list and an appointment been made for it so that is can be listed for sale. A sad day but we don't need two cars anymore and its not suitable to pull Maggie, the caravan.

Unfortunately as we cross one thing off the list another two seems to be added, need to get working on it, back to the pantry for another shelf.

Bread making

Sherian gave me a thermomix recipe book and most of the recipes in there look easy. I have tried a couple and they worked well.

The last time I went to a thermomix demo, the demonstrator had brought bread that she had made earlier that morning. Oh my Goodness, it was good. The recipe took five ingredients and everything was thrown into the Thermo (Annie)

I am hopeless at following a recipe! One reason is that i often don't have something so I comprise and a further reason is Warren cant have a few items so again I either leave out or swap. My cooking is more the little bit of this, little bit of that, oh, there we go, add a dash of that.

Annie needs a bit more structure to work so I had the recipe and was prepared to cook to the recipe. Sounds too easy, right?

First recipe called for 1.25 cups of water or 300 gms of water, all good, I got out my measuring cup and measured 3 cups of water. Then the yeast, 7 gms or a small packet , throw that in, 20 gms of olive oil, 500 gms of flour.  Oh, SH........., not 3 CUPS of water but 300gms. Recipe writer had said she was used to using cups and spoon measurements so she had given both.

Cant waste it so I increased the flour, doubled it and a bit more. 1.25 cups by 2 equals 2,50 so had to double plus. Continued on, Double checking the recipe!

Annie takes no more than two minutes to mix, then tip it out and leave to rise for 30 minutes. I did use a BIG bowl, the mix filled it! It was to make a scroll, ended up making three scrolls, one with sultanas and cocoa, rolled and cut, filled one tray. Second one was jam roly poly and last one was cheese and corn.

Thankfully I had lots of little plastic bags and now I have a freezer drawer full on snacks, good to have one with a cuppa. I really do need to READ the recipe more than once!

Flowers in the house

I ended up picking the black gladdies and bringing them inside where we enjoyed them for a couple of days.

I came home yesterday and Warren showed me a flower arrangement

that he had done. The hydrangea bushes are outside the kitchen window and are flowering beautifully. The darker smaller flowers are from the Geisha Girl trees/bushes that Warren had trimmed from the front fence.

He thought that they would make a pretty display.

Red hat Christmas party

My outfit for our Christmas party, as it was our Christmas get together, the colours were red and I wore my purple skirt as I don't have red pants or a skirt and I didn't really want to wear black like I normally do.

I bought the shoes which have purple straps but not real sure about them, don't think they are really me. I wore them to work today but think they will be banished to the black hole (back of my wardrobe until Red Hat days when I do wear a skirt some times. My flash hat usually only comes out for special occasions too.

We had lunch at the Deception Bay Tavern, $12 meals for seniors and they had set the table nicely with red and green bon bons, it was a nice meal, we had pre ordered and that means we pretty much get our meals at the same time.

We exchange gifts to the value of  $5 and this picture is what I made. Actually I made a bigger one a couple of months ago, it was before 2016 diaries were available to buy . I put it somewhere and then couldn't find where I put it so quickly had to make another with a 2016 diary so that was all good. (The iron mark did brush off!)

Christmas shopping

I went and did the rest of my Christmas shopping yesterday. I know its early but after writing it seemed all November, I wanted to get out and shop.

It was busy! I wanted to buy a wall clock for the staff room at work as in the new year, they are getting a new building Yippee! Trying to get a small present for all the staff was becoming a bit of a nightmare so I decided on a clock.

When we were in China, I bought many wall clocks and knew exactly where to get one and have lots of choice but home???

I tried Target first as I had one of those "spend so much by this date and get extra points" I had activated it so I went there. I am sure their A/C wasn't working, at 9.30 it was almost unbearably hot! They didn't have anything, actually it seemed to be all clothes and toys and Christmas decorations. I didn't want any of those so I left and when to a bargain basement stores.

I learnt in China to ask so at the front door of the store, I did and was shown where to go. There was no choice as they had only had one but it was suitable and after I paid, I noticed the girl had done this to it.

Computer is playing up and won't let me post the photo!!!! What she had done was taken the straps and tied them together, making a loop which was much easier to carry.