All cooked out.....

19

I am all cooked out. Exhausted by food. Feel good though. I got a hold of quite a bit of fresh seasonal produce on Thursday at the markets. Today I have made Pineapple and Zucchini Pickle (curry), Zucchini Pickle, Sweet Mustard Pickle, Apple Chutney, Apple Crumbles in the freezer ready for dessert one cold winter evening and Beetroot bottled ready for salads. Tomorrow I will finish of the beetroot and the sweet mustard pickles and also make a few bottles of Lemon Butter. I will add all of the recipes to my recipe pages in the next few days.

I absolutely love making preserves. I also got given quite a few lemons and I squeezed one of them into an icecube tray and then once they froze I tipped this cubes into a container in the freezer. Each cube is a tablespoon of lemon juice. When I make my mayonaise it uses 2 tablespoons of lemon juice so I don't have to worry if I have a lemon on hand for that.

I also started of a lemon vinegar cleaner as well. I cannot for the life of me remember where I read about this but I have collected the peels of the lemons over the past few days - just the peel and not the white. I put them all in a large glass jar and filled it up to the top with vinegar - just plain white vinegar. I will let it sit for a few weeks and add any more lemon peel as I go. Then I will strain it and fill up spray bottles. This is to be used for cleaning the benchs and with a sprinkle of bi carb on the bath first it will bring up the bath and vanity just beautifully. Great window cleaner as well. I have a fruit bowl with fresh oranges ready for me to eat and I will save this peel and make a orange vinegar cleaner as well.

I am getting a lot better at looking at something and seeing if I can use it up - freeze it - preserve it. I find it fun and interesting. I really want to make myself some strawberry jam so I am on the look out for cheap strawberries now - about 6kg of them so I can make up a years worth of strawberry jam.

It is interesting to note that over the past few weeks or more I keep coming across people saying that I should make things to sell at markets etc. This just seems to come up time and time again when I say that I have made something or show someone something I have made. I don't want to sell it. I just want to make things for myself and my home and for gifts for friends and family. I had one of my homemade grocery bags with me at the markets and the girl said "oh you should make them and sell at the markets" but then I explained to her that then I would have to worry about the perfection of the item and that there was no way I could bring myself to charge what would cover the time and effort to make something. The enjoyment just goes out of it then and it becomes like a job. Well that is how I feel about it anyway and it's not a big deal. It is quite a compliment to think my friends and faimly think what I have cooked or made is something another person would want to pay for. I am just commenting because I have found it interesting that this has been said at least 5 or 6 times over the past few weeks and that whenever a person sees something they like they automatically put a monetary value on it.

All the vegetables sitting overnight with salt sprinkled on them ready to make Sweet Mustard Pickles.

So so yummy with cheese on crackers.

Just a few of the the many jars that went into my pantry today. I didn't do fancy labels for any of these. They are for my store cupboard and not for gifts. I can always pretty a jar up with a piece of fabric and ribbon on the lid if I want to gift any of them. I will give a few of the jars of sweet mustard pickles to a good friend who always gives me back the jar when he is finished so I can give him another jar.

I am of to the movies tomorrow night to see the latest Transformers movie. I am also going into Tiaro tomorrow morning as I saw there was a few garage sales on in the morning. I will go and take a look and see what bargains I can find.

Cheers to you all,

Wendy

Dickabram Bridge and new friends

Dickabram Bridge at Miva, Queensland - crossing the Mary River. This bridge celebrates 125 years this coming September - it is a train and vehicle bridge. I will take better shots when I go there next time. I met with the Tiaro Arts Group today there in the park. I have joined the arts group even though I actually do not even know what I am going to do - paint? draw? watercolour? charcoal? I went to a little art workshop last week and met a lovely lady Barbara who invited me along to this art group. Usually they meet in the town of Tiaro but today they met in the park near this bridge as they are involved in the bridge celebrations happening later in the year. I took a few photos and got a feel for the place. I find it quite magical and I cannot express why. I want to do a piece of art to display with the others on the day of the celebration. Not sure what and where and how yet. I am sure it will come to me. The group has painters, drawers, printers, photographers and sculptor's. They are so friendly and welcoming. When asked what I do I said I did not yet know and that when asked along to join them I came in search of friendship. I think I might have found a treasure trove of it.

I really like this shot of the river.

I have had a great thing happen today in answer to something I have wanted to do for quite some time. I played the recorder at school like most children do. I enjoyed it and was fairly okay with it. I was at the local markets one day about a year ago and there was a young girl busking. I was mesmerized by the sound she was making and asked her what the instrument was and she said a tenor recorder. I didn't even know you could get a recorder in that size and with that sound. I went away with a desire to have one of my own and to learn to play like she was. When I looked into the cost of one of these instruments I realised that it was out of my price range for the time being. I was only thinking the other day that I should just get myself a basic recorder so I could at least start to learn to read the music again and I was saying to myself that at least then I have started and the rest could come later. Today I met a lady at the art group who plays the recorder professionally and she is going to help me learn and to choose the correct recorder for me. A tenor may be to big for my little hands and fingers. She suggested a treble. I will see what it is all about next week. She has even offered to loan me a recorder to see how I go. I am so excited and in awe of this universe bringing to us what we desire. A good lesson in being careful for what we wish for.