A camping kitchen in a small backpack

We  are planning a trip to the Great Barrier Reef and leave in two weeks time. I was building a small camping trailer to take with us and then we found out that our small car, a Chery J1, can't have a row bar attached! When we discovered this there was much wailing and rending of garments I can tell you. Once the hysteria was over, thankfully my Captain Practical re asserted herself and I started planning how we would manage without the camping trailer. I went exploring the interwebs for interesting links and was really assisted by this great blog post Compact Car Camping on Zero Cost Living http://0costliving.blogspot.com.au/p/compact-car-camping.html From here I started the cull and here is my full camping kitchen in a backpack.

The back back is actually a travelling picnic set that we won many years ago, we use it for local picnics as it has plates, glasses, cutlery, chopping board, sharp knife, etc. So it was ready to be turned into our small car camping kitchen!

The a Wine bottle section 

The wine bottle section, where the wine bottle goes for day picnics. I have used put all my kitchen utensils in this space, luckily these are all small and some fold up. It holds: scissors, tin opener, spatula, egg flip, a biggish bowled spoon, a drainer, two glass holders that are pushed into the ground, bottle opener, Swiss Army knife, wooden spoon, cheese grater, small tongs.

The front pocket section

The next section is the small front pouch holding: 3 tea towels, two enviro reusable sandwich wrappers, the table cloth and 2 napkins.

The 'fridge' section

Next is the back section which is the 'fridge' compartment when picnicking, it contains our: cooking stove, a Trangia which has two pots and one frypan, a kettle and a handle, it's the best piece of camping equipment we have ever bought, a hand towel and some more napkins, plastic garbage bags, ziplock bags, another wooden spoon and a lemon juicer (bit of an indulgence but it fits, so why not, good for gin and tonics :) and the stove lighter.

 

The major compartment

I swapped out the original plates for our travel plate set as they have a plate, bowl, spork, cup and smaller bowl with lid all packed nearly together. Then there istwo plastic wine glasses, two tin mugs, two aluminium cups, the camp toaster, cutlery for two, three tiny chopping boards, miscellaneous small things such as clips for table cloth and bags, etc. Also, a small measuring jug, another set of fire lighters, matches and a lighter, our tea makers (we use these tea strainers instead of tea bags, one teaspoon of tea, place in cup, pour on boiling water, let seep for a delicious fresh cuppa, much better for the environment, the leaves go into the compost :) 

So, there you have it, a kitchen in a small backpack, I'm very pleased with this arrangement. The washing bowls are collapsible but don't fit into this, but that's fine, they can be slide into a small section of the car.

Happy small car camping!

Fixing the trailer for rego for our Explorer Box

Part 1 can be found here http://ozquilter.blogspot.com.au/2014/06/building-compact-camping-trailer-using.html

Preparing for rego

So we have been preparing the trailer to re-register, we pulled it apart, took away the rust, took of the heavy metal cage ...

Painted the cleaned up frame. 

Painted the sides for rego, a happy, bright yellow, as it was in the shed, waste not want not :)

Bought the marine ply for the whole Explorer Box, very pleased to get it on special as well, $215 for the whole lot! Bought new mud guards to attach to the trailer.

Cut the base.

I'm now painting the base while A checks and fixes the electric system for indicators and lights. We hope to register the trailer next week.

Building a travel kitchen

I have also been looking at kitchen layouts, the Explore Box comes with a nice shelving set-up, but I want something that pulls out and my co-builder says we can do that. I put together all my camp kitchen gear to see what why I needed to pack in this space.

I then looked at various American style chuck boxes which are a clever system, developed by the scouting movement I believe. However, Americans, bless them, have huge cars and big trailers, I needed to model something created for a small car with limited pulling. I was quite taken with the layout below.

I then looked to Europe and found just what I was looking for! It's called a Campinambulle and is designed for small European hatchbacks. It's really clever and I'm going to base my build on it's layout. I'll be using plastic boxes for lightness, but I am in love the pullout stove and cooking space and the table.

Building a compact camping trailer using the Explorer Box instructions from Compact Camping Concepts

http://compactcampingconcepts.com/

My partner and I are planning a trip up the coast from the Blue Mountains, in NSW, to the Great Barrier Reef in Qld in August/September this year. We'll take 6 weeks to pootle up the coast, camping at nice places and relaxing and unwinding. We haven't had a real holiday for two years, so we are really looking forward to it.

We normally tent camp, but I have decided to make a light weight camping trailer for our trip in the next 6 weeks. Yes, mad as a cut snake, such a short space of time, but I work for myself and I can spend a good amount of time on it during the day.


The project is being funded by the contribution from friends. I recently had my 60th and they gifted me the money for a DIY project, well, the money was

for a shoe making workshop, but being a Gemini, that which was shiny 4 months ago, has lost its appeal :). After I decided to change to this project a builder friend then gifted her time to the project and she and I will build the small camping trailer using the Explorer Box instructions from Compact Camping Concepts. Our car is small, a Chery J1 1300, so we can't pull anything heavy, and nor do we want to. But the small car restricts adding camping gear, we would be packed to the gunnels, this way we will have space in the car and a travel home as well.

The trailer is second hand one, once someone's pride and joy, its made from old metal bed bases and currently weighs 150 kg, not really heavy but we intend to strip it of its heavy metal to lighten it and build our new camping trailer box on its frame. The lighter the better for our trip.

The plan that Scott of CCC provides is really well put together, he uses inches and feet as he's American, but not an issue, easy to convert to metric. We also have to move the design to work with our Australian left hand driving. Each step is well outlined and its a relatively easy building project for an historical costumer and pattern maker, that's me, and carpenter and electrician, that's A, both very competant women!

See the full build here ...

The design provides kitchen storage and then the rest of the space in the trailer is for storage of camping gear, bags, food, gas bottle, esky or travel fridge, water, spare tire, etc. For sleeping a separate stand alone tent or, as we will do, add a roof top tent and annex and tarps for wet weather. 

I'm thinking of putting the kitchen at the back and the storage at the front, having the kitchen near the trailer bar seems like a way to end up with a lot of bruised shins, especially at night. However, we will see, the trailer's wheels are closer to the back, so there is less space.

From a camping forum

 I've also thought of making a simple pull out kitchen like the one on the left. Just shelves and a bench top for the stove, food preparation, washing up, etc. at a good height to save the old and cranky back!This one hangs off the back door of the trailer, not sure how much weight bearing our wooden one will have, but the same layout could slide.





When we've finished it should look like Jay's set-up below on the left. Simple,  but comfy. The Roof top tent

Jay's set-up

and annex has been purchased and is on layby, well not really, but the owner of the second hand unit has kindly allowed me to pay it off over a few weeks.

So, watch this space, I will document the build here for you all to enjoy.

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I'm The Tailor's Apprentice, maker of The Miss Page 1940s reproduction patterns, gowns developed from pattern pieces found amongst the remnants of Miss Violet Florence Page’s life and work. Affordable, elegant, and unique garments from the 1940s war years. 

All my patterns are available on Etsy and my website where you'll find out more about me as well. This year I am publishing an 1820s gown wardrobe pattern and have already published the Australian Army Nurses Services WWI uniform pattern.

If you'd liked to be included on my mailing list for events, pattern release dates and interesting snippets about vintage and historic sewing, please subscribe to my Newsletter on The Tailor's Apprentice website.

Sugar free - still after two months

Our household has been sugar free for the last two months.

We experienced none of the issues that are written about in Sweet Poison, no withdrawal, or other unpleasant symptoms. We're grateful for this.

We have both lost weight, we are still losing weight, this is good, this was the objective. I suppose its the loss of sugar, but as we aren't eating cakes, biscuits, dried fruits, it could be this instead, how could I tell really?

I am enjoying eating butter and other so called 'bad' fats, as I do enjoy a bit of bread with my butter, lol!

We've returned to wheat, but only organic or old grains like spelt.

We will continue without sugar for the foreseeable future,hopefully continuing to lose weight.

Sugar free - week three

I have been sugar free for over three weeks now and have lost 5 kilos, I am extremely impressed and pleased.

I'm not hungry, I feel well, each meal I eat fills me up and I don't crave food during the day.

My David Gillespie, Sweet Poison book arrived and I have been enjoying reading it and learning more. 

My partner suffers from bad sinus and we know that wheat affects her, so for the next month we are removing wheat from our diet as well. Interestingly, on the day we decided to do this a friend posted this article on FB.

On the evils of wheat

Dr. William Davis on why it is so addictive, and how shunning it will make you skinny

Q: How does wheat make us fat, exactly?

A: It contains amylopectin A, which is more efficiently converted to blood sugar than just about any other carbohydrate, including table sugar. In fact, two slices of whole wheat bread increase blood sugar to a higher level than a candy bar does. And then, after about two hours, your blood sugar plunges and you get shaky, your brain feels foggy, you’re hungry. So let’s say you have an English muffin for breakfast. Two hours later you’re starving, so you have a handful of crackers, and then some potato chips, and your blood sugar rises again. That cycle of highs and lows just keeps going throughout the day, so you’re constantly feeling hungry and constantly eating. Dieticians have responded to this by advising that we graze throughout the day, which is just nonsense. If you eliminate wheat from your diet, you’re no longer hungry between meals because you’ve stopped that cycle. You’ve cut out the appetite stimulant, and consequently you lose weight very quickly. I’ve seen this with thousands of patients.

 So, another week, let's see what happens sans wheat.

Eliminating sugar ~ week 1

So my first week of removing sugar from my diet is going well, one week down of my three month trial *grin*. 

I've had no side effects or cravings as yet and I am sure the lack of cakes, biscuits, chocolate, bread and jam, ice cream etc. is good for me. 

No weight loss as yet however, but it is very early days.

Sadly my copy of Sweet Poison by David Gillispie hasn't arrived as yet but I have found another good book and website on removing sugar from your diet, by another Australian as well, Sarah Wilson of I Quit Sugar. As its an eBook, I was able to download it immediately and its a great read and its giving me great tips to help withdraw from sugar in my eating habits.

One of the pleasant surprises is that wine and strong spirits, in moderation of course, can remain in my diet as the sugar from the fruit is used up during the fermentation process.

Now that's a bonus, hic!

 

Sweet poison ~ taking sugar out of my diet

I heard David Gilliespie on Margaret Throsby's Midday program on ABC Classic FM yesterday, he is the author of Sweet Poison and I was very interested in what he had to say about sugar.

His thesis is that sugar is the major cause of obesity today and on reviewing my food intake of sugar, I consume far more of it than I released. I thought I ate in a relatively health manner and couldn't understand why my weight kept increasing.

For my health and age, I am way overweight at the moment, over the last three years, since I stopped commuting into Sydney, I have gone from 61k to 77k.

It is partly because I'm no longer a gym junkie since stopping my city job, I still exercise, but not twice a day in the gym. Its also partly from munching on delicious home baked goods in my classes with The Tailor's Apprentice.

We always have a tea break with scrumptious treats fresh baked by my students. I eat them with pleasure, and the leftovers later. These cakes and other sweet treats are an almost daily occurrence. When I worked, such things were an occasional treat.

I don't want to get unwell due to being overweight, so I'm going to try taking sugar out of my diet for the next three months and see if doing that will enable me to reduce weight.

I intend to blog about it as I go on Blue Mountains Bliss which has been silent since 2010.
So come along with me on my journey!

Gypsy vegetable stew

I haven't posted a recipe for quite a while, I have been busy with establishing my new enterprise, The Tailor's Apprentice, where I mentor you over 10 weeks to make the gown of your dreams.  I haven't stopped my love of cooking however, I just haven't blogged about it! Since I last wrote we have planted out our summer veggie garden and got a chook, still a youngster but growing fast and hopefully we will get our own eggs soon.

Since I left my city job in April, I have been getting unfit, too much time enjoying myself in the studio and kitchen and not enough time exercising. So my friend Justine from Empowered Beginnings, is working with me to get back to my fit and healthy self, her motto is:
  
“Whether you’re planning on bringing a new life into the world, or improving your own – we all have a birthright to be healthy and happy!”

 Justine wants everyone to be empowered to eat well, healthily and to exercise to get the best potential out of their lives. She and her partner have started Friday Night Feasts at their place where we all bring a home cooked meal made from fresh, organic ingredients and cooked from first principles and as seasonal as possible. I made Gypsy Vegetable Stew in my Dreampot Thermal Cooker, the recipe is by Suzanne Gibbs from her Pressure Cooker Recipe Book, I adapted it slightly and added organic chicken to the mix.

Gypsy Vegetable Stew

2 white or brown onions, sliced (I used whole spring onions)
2 green or red capsicums, halved, white insides and seeds removed and then sliced into thick strips (i used red and yellow)
3 zucchini, cut into chunks
2-3 cloves garlic, roughly chopped (I left them whole)
1 eggplant, cut into chunks (I didn't use this)
2 tomatoes, cut into chunks
1 x 400 g diced tomatoes or 1 punnet cherry tomatoes (I used tinned tomatoes)
1 chicken breast, cut into chunks
Salt and freshly ground black pwepper
!/3 cup olive oil
Juice of one lemon

I also used the following:
1 large handful of Pumpkin, cubed
1 large handful of Sweet potatoes, cubed
1 large handful of Potatoes, cubed 

All my ingredients were organic and locally sourced, some from my garden.

1. Arrange the vegetables and chicken in separate layers, first the onions, then capsicum, zucchini, garlic, chicken, eggplant, lastly the fresh or tinned tomatoes, sprinkling each layer with pepper and salt. Pour over olive oil and lemon juice.

2. Close the lid of your pressure cooker (I used my Dreampot as a thermal cooker, see below for details *), bring the cooker to high heat, once low pressure has been reached, reduce the heat to stablise pressure and cook 5 minutes.

3. Release the pressure using the natural-release method and remove lid. Serve warm or at room temperature.

* Dreampot method:

1.Organise ingredients as for Point 1 above.

2. Place Dreampot saucepan on cooker, bring to a boil, boil gently for 15 minutes.

3. Remove Dreampot saucepan from cooker and put into Dreampot thermal container.

4. Leave for a minimum of 2 hours (mine was the full 7 hours as I made it in the morning)

This recipes is simple, healthy and delicious, not much else you can ask for in a one-pot meal really.

Salzburger Nockerl

In February this year we had a a friend from Germany visiting us, we met years ago in a choral group and have remained good friends ever since, even with the world separating us.  On this visit she made us this fabulous, delicious and super easy desert called Salzburger (as in Saltzburg) Nockerln (dumplings). She whipped it up without a recipe and I transcribed as she went and I meant to post it as soon as possible after her visit, but I lost the recipe and have been nagging her to send it to me and finally she has found the time, so now I am sharing it with you.

Salzburger Nockerl is a sweet dish typical of Austrian cuisine  that is especially popular in Salzburg, as its name implies. Its a Soufflé omelette baked in three’s on a large  dish and served hot with a sweetened strawberry (or fruit of your choice) flavoured cream or jam sauce.

How to make Salzburger Nockerln
Recipe is taken from Kochen, Die grosse Schule“ by Arnold Zabert

Ingredients:
6 large eggs (separate into 6 egg whites and 6 egg yolks)
50g fine white sugar
1 vanilla bean
40g white wheat flour
butter to grease the oven dish
2 table spoons of icing sugar to sprinkle on top

optional: fruits of your choice, like cherries, plums etc. (from a jar or tin)
Preheat the oven to 200

In a large bowl beat the egg yolks with 30g of the sugar for 5 minutes  with electric beaters until they are thick and creamy.

Cut the vanilla bean open and extract the pulp with a knife, then add the pulp to the egg yolks and spoon it in.

Beat the egg whites until they are very stiff, then add the rest of the sugar.

With a spatula carefully mix the stiff egg whites and the flour, spoon by spoon, into the egg yolks. Make sure you spoon as much air into the mixture as you can to make it very fluffy.

Grease an oven dish with a bit of butter. (Don´t choose the dish too big so the Nockerln will rise and don´t just cover the base.) With the spatula place 3 long pyramid shaped bits of the mixture into the dish (“Nockerln”), one next to the other, so they fill the whole dish.

Immediately put the Nockerln into the hot oven, bake for 15 minutes and don´t open the oven door in the process. The Nockerln are ready when they get a bit golden brown on top but are still soft inside.

Sprinkle the hot Nockerln with icing sugar (use a tea streamer) and serve immediately.

You can serve the Nockerln with heated up fruits (with a bit of their own juice) from a tin.

As I said above, this is an elegant, delicious and super easy dish to make for a dinner party, give it a try!

Working for me, not the boss

Two months ago I left my well paid, but extremely frustrating, full time job, to work for me and not the boss, this has been a huge change in my life and has kept me so busy that I've had no time for my personal blog. This post talks about how this huge change has affected me.

I was a NSW public servant, working in eBusiness, project managing the development of such things as websites, applications, and at the end, the move to social networking through Twitter, FaceBook, blogs, etc. I commuted from our Blue Mountain's cottage to the Sydney CBD, a three hour return journey for 9 years!

Last year, this commute, plus my growing unhappiness and lack of fulfillment in my work sent me searching for other career modes that would free me from both commute and 'working for the man'.  I wanted something away from technology, I love using it, but was so tired of trying to convince managers that social networking wasn't 'risky'! A friend had become a marriage celebrant a few years earlier and so I investigated the idea and loved it, it suited me to a 'T'. So last year I returned to study and qualified as a registered Civil Marriage Celebrant and started the journey to my new business of Offbeat Ceremonies.

Being a Celebrant is such a complex and important role, I strongly believe that birth, coming of age, death, menarche, menopause, marriage and commitment ceremonies are rites of passage that need to be thoughtfully and appropriately marked for us to fully transition into the next phase of our lives. Being a Celebrant means that I work with people so they can transition between one phase of their lives to the next. A Celebrant marks these important stages, we are a gatekeeper and shaman and ritual maker. Perfect for a woman who has reached her third age.

Instead of office politics, I get to be with people who want to reconnect to community, who take time to mark and celebrate each new season of life, its a role where I can celebrate important and significant parts of people's lives.

I'd never run a business, had no idea what to do, so I went in search of a business coach who would be my guide and 'shaman' into this next phase of my working life. I found @TerriCook of SuccessZone through Twitter and she has been helping me turn from a 'desk jockey' to a small business entrepreneur who runs Offbeat Ceremonies.

Through Terri I found my 'Purple Cow', Seth Godwin's groundbreaking idea of niche markets. Once I found it, I spent ages finding out the who, what, why and how of them, once this was locked down I could design my marketing strategy, graphics,website around my niche. This is what I've been working on rather than blogging!

All of this has been a revelation to me, I have learnt so many new skill sets and discovered strengths that I knew nothing about. I am loving my business coaching and I would highly recommend @TerriCook to anyone who wants to take the plunge and change their life around.

At Easter I left my job and took early retirement to further develop Offbeat Ceremonies. I was apprehensive and scared of this step, iis hard to move from the secure boundaries of a good fortnightly salary, not to mention holidays, long service leave and sick leave! After a holiday in Melbourne I came back and panicked, 'argh! what have I done' but @TerriCook worked me through it and while I'll be hit by these doubts again, being my own mistress and doing what I want to do is so empowering!

Since I've been working from home, my life is enriched with so many wonderful community ventures, I've started to learn belly dancing and ukulele, get more into my yoga practice, create more in my studio, currently an 1880's 'saloon girl' outfit with a lovely bustle!  I am volunteering at the BM Coop and have been offered a local job for two days a week with Summit Gear, which I am enjoying immensely and gives me a weekly income as I build up the business.

I also spend time on my business, networking, reaching out, marketing and I'm running a competition at the moment:

Join my FaceBook Offbeat Ceremonies fanpage by COB on 31 May and you could win a wedding, commitment or vow renewal ceremony valued at $650!

I am loving the freedom of my new life, I love my clients who are people in love with each other, with life and the world. I love that I have more time for the things that are important to me, my beloved partner, my friends and my business.

The most exciting thing of late is the creation of two videos about Offbeat Ceremonies by @jerelmani and @Lizzzzzzigal from Who Needs a Secretary, once again I met them both through Twitter. A wonderful and creative pair and to quote them

We can handle all of your media requirements inhouse – including professionally produced corporate videos. Our video production team includes specialists in television production and interview techniques. Our team is ideal for working with media shy talent, helping bring out the best in our interview subjects. Take at look at Lorna McKenzie’s latest video, for her Blue Mountains based business, Offbeat Ceremonies.

So, as invited by Who Needs a Secretary, here's the link to my YouTube videos, go and find out about my passion for Offbeat Ceremonies

Why Offbeat
Rites of Passage


May good fortune rule over you,
Peace live in your heart,
And the stars watch over you.

Link love ~ blogs I love

A page of link love, this page will grow and change, so visit often.


Australian women
Tina Gray.me Used to be Mummified Times Five, but has recently changed names. Tina and I met on Twitter and her blog is informative, amusing and down to Earth and I like that a lot.

Foodies
Inside Cuisine Rebecca Varidel & guests sharing recipes & more from Celebrity Chefs, restaurants, food producers & farmers, travellers, friends … another Twitter find @frombecca
A page of link love, these are bloggers that I admire and enjoy, the list will grow and change, so visit often.

Five minutes a day fresh bread

I've been baking bread again this year, I've even set up a blog about it Bread with Elizabeth and I'm working my way through recipes I like from Elizabeth David's Bread and Yeast Cookery

All the bread recipes I read say that the bread making should work around your schedule, not that of the bread's, but starting from scratch each time can be time consuming and it can be hard to resist the temptation to 'pop out and buy some bread'

So when I came across this five minutes a day fresh bread recipe in the Mother Earth Newsletter, I was delighted. The method allows you to mix up a big batch of bread mixture, store it in the fridge and it requires NO kneading, saving time and still providing good quality bread.

Jeff Hertzberg and Zoë François created the method "When you want fresh-baked crusty bread, take some  dough, shape it into a  loaf, let it rise for about 20 minutes, then bake. Your house will  smell like a bakery, and your family and friends will love you for it."

I'm hooked and have been using this method to bake our bread throughout March as its so darn 'easy peasy'!

I'm not going to reproduce the recipe here as you can either buy their book or follow the method outlined on the Mother Earth website. Let me know how you go with it.

Making yogurt

Along with bread making, I've been hunting out the perfect home yogurt recipe over the last few weeks. As with bread, I used to make my own yogurt, but then delicious organic yogurt became available and it seemed easier to buy it.

Of late, we've been looking at ways of reducing our income, I'm working less at the day job so I can spend more time doing the things that make my heart sing and therefore we need to reduce our spending. The cost of our delicious organic yogurt is quite expensive, plus the cost to the environment of every plastic pot makes me less than comfortable.

Last year we bought an EasiYo kit, sadly, the yogurt made from their packets wasn't that pleasant, not like the thick delicious yogurt that we preferred, so I abandoned making it. However, the EasiYo kit has been brought back as its the perfect environment to incubate delicious, creamy, thick, yogurt.

I asked RL, Twitter, FB friends how they made their yogurt and the consensus was the same, use good organic full cream milk, the addition of dried milk powder and a good yogurt starter to start the first batch and then go on with your own.

So, here's the mix I gleaned from everyone and after a few attempts I now get perfect thick, creamy, rich and healthy yogurt.

3 and a half cups organic unhomogenised milk
1/2 a cup of organic milk powder
2 large tablespoons of good quality yogurt culture - bring up to room temperature

Mix liquid and powdered milk together and then heat the milk till just under boiling point. Heating the milk both assists the yogurt in thickening and kills nasty bacteria that you don't want to incubate. Let it cool to around 42 - 39 C. Once cool, mix in the two tablespoons of yogurt, then pour into your container to incubate. I put it into the EasiYo plastic bottle, then pour hot water into the EasiYo incubater but only up to the bottom of the red stopper. Put your bottle in and leave for at least 6 hours (I leave overnight), then refrigerate, and once cool, enjoy.

If you don't have an EasiYo incubator you can use a wide mouth thermos for exactly the same result.

So we are saving money, enjoying the pleasure of creating something ourselves and have reduced our plastic intake.

Pickled onions

We are going back to basics in our house, trying to reduce the household budget. We're baking bread and making yogurt, cooking 'two dinners for one' meals, taking our lunch, eschewing cafes and bought coffees, making our own Saturday special breakfasts, having dinner parties at each others houses rather than going to restaurants. We are 'making do and mending' and its damned enjoyable.

We made pickled onions today, they're actually not my favorite pickle, but they are the wife's, and as she came home with pickling onions on Saturday, what could a home cook do but pickle them?


We looked at a few recipes, chose the method and recipe from Food Preserving at Home p.56 by John Gross, then adapted the recipe to our memories of our mother's pickled onions and what we had available on hand.

Pickled onions a la Azure Hills
Made three 500 ml jars (1) of pickled onions

1 kg pickling onions
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup salt
500 mls white vinegar
500 mls apple cider vinegar
1/8 cup  Panch phoran (a Bengali spice seed mix)
15 peppercorns
6 cardamon pods
6 cloves garlic
6 bay leaves
3 nutmeg cloves

Peel your onions, easy way to do this is put them in a bowl and cover them with boiling water, leave for 2 minutes and then transfer to a bowl of cold water. Leave the ends of the onions on as it keeps them from coming apart.

Place the peeled onions in a bowl, cover with the cup of salt, cover with cold water, leave for a minimum of 12 - 18 hours in a cool place, fridge is good. Drain onions, then rinse and drain again.

While your draining the onions, put your vinegar, sugar and Panch phoran into a saucepan, bring to a simmer, simmer for 15 minutes.

Pack your onions into hot, clean 500 ml jars (heat jars in the oven), leaving 13 ml headspace. Add 5 peppercorns, 1 garlic clove, 2 bay leaves, 2 cardamon pods, and 1 nutmeg clove to each jar. Heat pickling liquid to a boil. Pour boiling liquid over onions in bottles, make sure the Panch phoran is distributed between the jars, leaving 13 ml headspace for expansion. Remove the air bubbles from the bottles.

Remove air bubbles, wipe rims and seal jars. We had left over pickling vinegar and we will use it as a lovely flavoured vinegar for salad dressings etc., an extra bonus.

Use a boiling water bath for 10 minutes, to process the filled and sealed jars, for the safest of preserves.

Leave the pickles for a minimum of 24 hours before opening, the longer you leave them, the more the flavours will mature.

Boiling water bath
Fill a big pot, deep enough for your bottles to fit in and be covered by water 25cm deep above the lids.

Fill the pot with water, bring to the boil, when just under boiling, place jars into pot, make sure they are covered by 25cm water above the lids, then bring to the boil. Keep boiling for 10 minutes, then remove jars from hot water, place on a tea towel and let cool. The lids will 'pop' and fully seal the pickles as the bottles start to cool down. Don't leave pickles in the water bath as it will cook them and remove their crunch.

(1) Don't buy new jars, recycle old ones and buy new lids, go to Green Living Australia for more information.

Bread baking

Baking bread is something I haven't done for a while, I used to do it lots as I couldn't buy the bread I liked, but the introduction of Artisan bread in Australia over the last few years has made me drop the habit. This morning however we had run out of bread and as today is a public holiday, getting decent fresh bread is not really possible, I decided to dust of my bread making skills and make us some.

I used a simple wholemeal recipe from Delia's How to Cook, Book One, Quick and easy wholemeal loaf, p. 82. If you've never made bread I recommend this recipe as it is easy and delicious.




Quick and easy wholemeal loaf
Makes 1 large or two small loaves
1 lb 4 oz (570g) 100% organically produced wholewheat flour, plus a little extra for the top of the bread (I used bread flour which has more gluten and provides a better structure)
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon soft light brown sugar
2 teaspoons dried yeast
about 14 floz (400 ml) hand-hot water

You will also need a 2lb (900 g) loaf tin or two q lb (450 g) loaf tins, well buttered.


Begin by warming the flour slightly in the oven for about 10 mins, turn oven off for now.

Next, tip the warm flour into a large mixing bowl and sprinkle the salt, sugar, yeast into it and mix together.

Make a well in the centre of your mixed flour and add the water. Mix this in with a wooden spoon until it forms a dough; the exact amount of water you need depends on the flour. Finish off by mixing with your hands until you have a smooth dough that leaves the bowl clean - there should be no bits of flour or dough remaining on the sides of the bowl and unlike pastry, its better to have too much water than too little. (NB: I use my Kenword dough mixing hook for this but hand mixing is just as good and more authentic).

Transfer your dough to a flat surface (your clean kitchen table is fine) stretch the dough into an oblong, then fold one edge into the centre and the other over that. Now fit the dough into the tin, pressing it firmly all round the edges, so that the top will be slightly rounded. Next, sprinkle the surface with a generous dusting of flour, then cover with a damp, clean tea towel and leave to rise in a warm place for 30 - 40 minutes or at room temperature for about an hour. If your making two loaves, divide the dough in half before following the steps above and folding it into two tins.

Meanwhile, pre-eat the oven to 200oC. When the dough is risen to the top of your tin/s, bake the bread for 40 minutes for the 2 lb or 30 mins for the two 1 lb loaves. When the bread is cooked, turn it out of its tin/s, turn it out on a cloth to protect your hands - it will sound hollow when wrapped underneath with your knuckles. Then return the bread, out of its tin/s, upside-down to the oven for a further5 - 10 minutes to crisp the base and sides.

Cool the bread on a wire rack, and never put it away or freeze it until its absolutely cold!

Summer Solstice - the end of a busy year

This year we celebrated Summer Solstice, or Litha, before the 21st December, last Saturday in fact, with our friends, a lovely BBQ under the oak tree, until it rained! That's the Blue Mountains and Climate Change for you LOL. I must admit that the rain pleases me, living so close to the Blue Mountains World Heritage National Park, hot summers make me twitchy about bush fire.

Summer Solstice signals the end of the year in Australia, school has finished, so has uni, nervous students are awaiting the results of their end of year exams on the beach while their parents madly scrabble to organise Christmas or Chanukah (Hanukkah). We all go to end of year parties, catch up with people we haven't seen all year because our lives are stupidly busy; and say good bye to another year with the hope that the next one will be different than the last.

Everyone is gearing up for some sort of summer break, though much less than in the past as Australians work far more than they should, its depressing that so many let the summer slide by without paying it any attention.

I'm looking forward to our two week holiday as this has been a huge year for us. We sold our house, bought a new one, packed, moved, both of us studied part-time and our work places were incredibly busy and not that fun to be in. I became a registered Civil Marriage Celebrant and got a business coach, Terri Cook of SuccessZone, to help me get the business up and running.

We hope to spend our summer holiday in the garden destroying the jasmine that the former owners let take over the garden. We have cleared at least half, but as our garden is big, there's still loads to do. We hope to create a small pond and build our own small stone henge from rocks taken from our former garden. Not sure if we'll achieve all of this as I also hope to get back into the studio to continue my Saloon Girl outfit. Really need three months, not two weeks!

I wish everyone a fabulous end of year festivity, whatever you may be celebrating, I hope the new year brings the joy, success, prosperity and happiness that you are looking for.

Something old, new, borrowed and blue - A marriage registry cover

I'm working with a business coach for the next year to help establish Blue Mountains Celebrations, I'm using Terri Cook (@TerriCook on Twitter) of SuccessZone and she is brilliant, I am learning lots and gaining confidence as I go. Terri sets me many tasks each week, all based around getting me into the Blue Mountains Celebrations business mode. Some of them are extremely practical but others are creative projects.

Terri set me the task to create something for my business using the creative skills I use for quilting and costuming. I thought about an item of clothing, but it didn't excite me and then at a GTG yum cha with my celebrant group Janette mentioned that she'd like a Marriage Registry cover, both to protect it and to make it special. My heart said, 'that's it' and I went on to create it.

For those of you who don't know, the Marriage Register is where your marriage details are entered and kept for posterity, once full, its returned to Birth Deaths and Marriages and kept for ever. If you have ever done family history searches, you may have used one in your search. The Register will out live me and all my couples, so it needs to be protected and kept clean and safe.

I went to my fabric stash and had a hunt for suitable fabrics, I have lots of fabric, laces, ribbons, braids, left over from my mother's wedding and ball gown couturier business, amongst them I found some perfect fabric and trims. As I'm a quilter, I decided to use these skills to make the cover. As this is my first cover I chose a traditional theme 'Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue'. I also made a book mark/place holder from a lovely blue woven braid and tassels.

It was a great project and gave me much pleasure. I know a business plan is more practical, but making this cover made my heart sing and let me see how my creativity could be used to enhance the business.

The positive thing from this is that Janette has commissioned me to make one, which is a bonus, and I will investigate interest and maybe there is a handmade product for Etsy so 'watch this space'!