Garden

It is well and truly spring here in Adelaide and the weather has been beautiful.  We have had beautiful spring days.
I now feel I need to update you on our vegetable garden.

It is growing very well, and I will take some pictures to show you.

We have a large quantity of peaches, apricots and pears that are growing on our trees so we are looking forward to some lovely fresh produce in the new year.

Our corn (normal corn that is) is growing very tall, so again we hope to have some nice cobs to eat soon. 
The lawn (couch) that was in the patch before we dug it up for a veggie patch, is also flourishing with the extra watering.  So after this crop, we will have to dig it over again.  We should have sprayed and let the ground sit for a while, but we were a little impatient to get our veggies growing & dont' like the idea of sprays.

Our snowpeas are just gorgeous and taste yummy.  DD #2 who is 4 yo, goes out everyday to pick some & loves eating them straight off the plants.  Yesterday she played with her little friend Penelope and they had a wonderful time staying there eating snowpeas for ages.

Penelope said they were the best snowpeas she had eaten.  Not that imagine the 4 yo is a connisseur of snowpeas, I still felt my chest puff out!!!

Adelaide's Christmas Pagaent

Well for anyone who has grown up or lived in Adelaide, you will be aware of the annual Christmas Pagaent.  This is the day of days for any child in Adelaide and marks the beginning of the Christmas season where Father Christmas comes to the city.

I am running late, and didn't get a chance to post this before hand.
I do have some great tips as a regular Pagaent goer.  This year the weather was absolutely perfect.  We weren't planning on it, but we arrived earlier - everyone in the house was up - so I figured we might as well head in.

We had food, drinks, rugs, cushions, and chalk.  With 4 children I need to be prepared to ensure it runs smoothly and is enjoyed by all.  We are fortunate that Mr S works in the CBD and is able to access his building after hours.  So we camped out the front of his building, which meant he could easily run the children up to the toilets as required.  DD#2 had made some biscuits on the Friday before hand, and we took in popcorn and fruit boxes. 

We arrived at 7am when the roads were closed.  Armed with chalk, the children started drawing and entertaining themselves.  We secured front road seats.   We were mainly in the shade, which is also important when waiting in through to the end at 11:30 and being of Irish decent we are all as fair as fair.

It was a great day.  DS #2 (baby #4) learnt to wave which was my highlight of the day.  But it was also great to see DD #2 (baby #3) was so enlighted and enchanted by the magical floats and clowns.You can see how thick the crowd is and all the chalk drawings on the road.

It is a great day and is FREE - so for a family with 4 children is a great event without spending any $$$$.


Thanks to the Pagaent Sponsors, the Credit Unions www.cupageant.com.au.  This year was the pagaent's 80th year and it was great to see new floats and lots of new and fresh costumes about.

Pippi's Piece - Fantastic Apple Almond Cake

A friend recently gave me this recipe.   It has to be the EASIEST recipe EVER!  Here is the recipe as she gave it to me.  I am unsure of where she found it, or whether ithas been passed down through her family - so sorry for not giving any sources.

APPLE ALMOND CAKE

2 cups sugar

2 cups self raising flour

2 tbs cinnamon

1 tbs nutmeg

1 cup vegetable oil

4 eggs

2 tbs vanilla essence

4 apples peeled and sliced/diced

1 cup sliced almonds

Combine/mix in bowl in the above listed order.

  Place in well greased bundt pan.  Bake 180 degrees for 1 hour or as long as it takes. 

Can use combination of apple and pear. 

 I didn't have any apples, so I threw in some tinned peaches instead.  It stayed moist for days and was absolutely delicious!!!! 

Thanks Ana!.

Today I have attempted a Gluten Free version.  I omitted the vanilla essence, and used Gluten Free Self raising flour.  The cake looks just as delicious

I can't wait to try it tonight.  I will sprinkle it with icing sugar before serving.  It is so moist you don't need to serve with cream, but you can if you like.

 

Glass Gem Corn Seeds have landed!!

 

THANK YOU to Bee from Merribee's Organic Farm.
And to the Forum on Aussie's living simply which connected me to Bee's site.
My seeds arrived in the post on Friday.  I am very eager and excited to plant them, but we currently have sweetcorn planted in our front garden, so we will need to wait until that has finished before planting these new seeds.

For those of you who missed my last posts, here is a picture of this beautiful corn that is an heirloom corn variety that you can grow.

Isn't it just magical!!!!!

$35 Food Challenge

Hi all,
I signed up for the $35 food challenge  which I found out about from Corridor Kitchen, a blog I like to read.

 However it has been a bad week in the Pippi household and nothing has gone to plan.
What can I say - I feel dreadful.  I person living in poverty can't just say - Opps Oh Well, I will start next week...... This is all the cash they have so that if they did that, they would starve yet another week.

In our case, most of our 'moula' this week has gone to the medical profession.  Another thing that a person in poverty is unable to do.

Well I am furious!  I took DD#1 to see the opthamologist.  Now we were told that we would briefly see the orthoptic person first and then visit the opthamologist.  So off we trott.  We arrived on time for our 9:30 appointment.  After much waiting, we eventually saw the orthoptic person who told us DD#1's current glasses (3mths old) are the wrong prescription and that she will need new lenses.  We were told the opthamologist will check the prescription required but we also needed to have drops in her eyes, so that the opthamologist could check the health of the eyes.  So we had our drops, waited the prescribed 20mins, waited some more, and a little more for good measure, then waited longer and longer. Finally we went in to see opthamologist.
The Othamologist agreed her prescription was wrong but announced that her eyes were healthy - Yippee!!!  As the drops were in, her pupils were dilated so we needed to come back in a few days to check her prescription again!!!  We left around 12:30 - 3 hours after arrival!!!.  I was not happy.
I am so fortunate that DS#2 (ie Baby #4) is so placid and waited happily for that time.

So then we had to go back with DD#2 (ie Baby #3) and DD#1.  DD#2 was to have the works, Orthoptic and opthamologist.  DD#1 was to see opthamologist for this second prescription yet, while DD#2 was waiting the prescribed 20mins for the eye drops to work. Then DD #2 would been seen by the opthamologist.
But....... NO... the opthamologist who thinks their time is so much more important than everyone else's time again made us wait and wait and wait.
We arrived at 10:30 and promptly saw the orthoptic person.  Then DD#2 had her drops. Then we waited and waited and waited.  Finally we saw the opthamologist and left after 1:30.  So I have spent 6 hours with DS#2 (baby #4) in that waiting room this week.    I am furious that I had to wait so long.  Why is my time any less valuable than the opthamologists time.  I have 4 children, kindy pickups, school pickups and lots of other things in my life, and I don't need to waste 6 hours sitting in a doctors surgery, with hungry grizzly children.  I had some snacks, but obviously I didn't expect to be there so long and over lunch time, so I didn't have enough for them.

 But the point of this thread is the $35 food challenge. I ended up paying $238.18 out of my pocket, after Medicare.

Next,  I had my dentist appointment.  To bring you quickly up to speed, I am in the midst of having root canal treatment on my tooth.  I have been going every month this year and paying about $200 out of pocket after my health fund rebate.  As usual, I had to wait ages to be seen by the dentist.  However this time I did come prepared with a book in hand.   I was seen by the dentist and then came out and paid and had a huge shock when I needed to pay $473.25 out of pocket.  I chocked!!!
So there goes more money that I wasn't expecting to outlay.

Today I took DD #1 to the glasses shop to purchase new lenses for her glasses.  As her glasses were only purchased in April this year, I wasn't expecting much rebate back as I knew we had already claimed against our health fund.  However I was again shocked to find out that her new lenses cost $225.  That is not the frames, only the lenses.
I don't understand the whole system and am sick to death of all of the false marketing where the signs up say "complete kids glasses from $159" .  Now DD#1 has a basic single focal lens in both eyes, no fancy bi-focals or transition lenses or anything.  Just plain basic short sighted glasses.

SO back to our $35 food challenge.  We have outlaid $936.40 on medical expenses this week alone.  Plus all of my time running around and WAITING in doctors surgeries.


Next week we are off to the Ear Nose and Throat Surgeon to check on DD#1 and DD#2.   To have their ears checked out. So I will be outlaying more for that.

Also next week DD#1 is booked in to see a Podiatrist to have orthotics made.  I have rung up and been told the cost is $570, less our rebate from our health insurance.

Therefore our total medical bill for this fortnight is looking to be about $1500. (Thank fully we were in front on our mortgage!)

What is my point with all of this??

We are an average middle class family, living in an inner city suburb.  We are struggling!!!!!  We are not in poverty like people that use the Foodbank.(http://www.foodbank.org.au/).
Yes we can afford to buy health insurance.
Yes we are fortunate enough to be able to get our children the glasses and orthotics they require.

But at what expense.

We eat basic food each week - and especially this month - it is all we can afford.
The $35 food challenge, I assume is aimed at individuals.  As a family of 6 that equates to $210 per week.  But that is all we currently spend on food each week anyway.  If this amount is to include all groceries, then we do go a little over that amount.  We are spending more like $230 per week on all groceries, including cleaning products etc.
I usually try to buy as much as possible in bulk.  I go to Big W to buy the biggest washing powder containers - I need to buy Omo Sensitive as my children have itchy skin from other regular washing powders, and I buy in bulk when things are on special, like when Foodland has toilet paper rolls out cheap.  (the problem is we have no room to store things with so many people in a little house!)
I use Metho only on my floors and don't spend a fortune on cleaning products, and prefer to use items that are environmentally friendly, or natural products like Bi-Carb Soda and Vinegar to clean the bathrooms.
I go to Gaganis Foods and buy flour in bulk as it is much cheaper than buying it per kilo at the supermarket.

The biggest thing I find about living on a tight low budget is time. 
I need time to prepare different meals and read new recipes.  I need time to plan out our meals so no food is wasted and we eat what we have. With 4 small children time is the main thing I don't have.  It takes time, to plan out the shopping lists and not buy things that won't last.

The $35 food challenge.

Mr S and I will donate to the Foodbank, 

And yes we are fortunate.  We are struggling, but struggling to still provide for our children whilst meeting all their needs and to give them the best up bringing we can.

We eat bland cheap meals, which Mr S complains are repetitive and boring.  We don't cook steaks or go out to restaurants (I don't mean just fancy restaurants - we don't go out to restaurants full stop, even cafes!!!).  We don't buy ourselves new shoes, or new clothes. We don't ever go to the movies or see a band or a show.  From what I have learnt, our food bill is only around that of people around the poverty line. So we are obviously not eating expensive foods.

But we have a beautiful family and we have managed to find the money to cover these medical costs which many other families are unable to do.  So we are very fortunate.

I feel sad that I didn't have enough time this week to actively plan / blog/ cook our food according to the $35 food challenge, but I have realised that it is probably far closer to our normal week than I ever knew or expected. Our children only ever have porridge, weetbix or toast for breakfast.  We buy homebrand porridge which equates to one of the cheapest breakfasts I have found, and it is often made with water and not milk to further save.  To be honest, I don't know how much further we could have saved, even if I had sat down and done all the planning etc.
We grow our own vegetables and go to the local Gepps Cross Markets to buy our produce at a fraction of the cost of the major retail chains.  This also means we are having healthy produce rather than pre-processed packaged foods.

Hmmmmm...... we aren't in poverty as we have health , we could afford this medical costs and we have a roof over our head, but gosh, our disposable income seems to be closer than I anticipated!!

Pippi's Piece -- Super Easy Apricot Almond Cheese

Yet another recipe that I have had so many people ask for and say how exquisite it tastes.

Simply have a block of Kraft's Philadelphia Cream Cheese

 If you  prefer you can use the light one. 

Let it sit out at room temperature so it is soft.  Then place it in a bowl with

• 2-3 tablespoons of icing sugar - depending on taste (I always like a little more  !!)

• Add about 1/4 cup of diced dried apricots.  You can either buy diced apricots or buy normal dried apricots and quickly chop them up.

• About 1/4 cup of  lightly roasted flaked almonds.

For a nicer flavour, gently roast the flaked almonds in a slow oven (100C) for about 5-10mins.  Watch the almonds, otherwise they will quickly burn.  You want them to have a nice golden colour like this.









Mix all the ingredients in a bowl together.
Lay out on a piece of cling wrap.   Shape into a log type shape, and roll up cling wrap.  Make sure the ends are also covered so the cheese doesn't dry out.
Put in the fridge to firm.

Then simply cut a slice off the roll and place on a plate with crackers, and celery and carrot sticks for easy entertaining.
If you make sure the icing sugar mixture is gluten free, then this is an easy gluten free dish when served with carrots, celery, capsicum sticks or with certified gluten free crackers.

ENJOY!!!!

Pippi's Piece --Christmas Treats part 4 - Almonds - Yum Yum

Now this has got to be the EASIEST RECIPE ever!

It is so so simple and SO SO YUMMY.   Every time I make these, without fail, I am asked for the recipe.

Toffeed Almonds.

2 cups Almonds - good quality eating almonds are best (if you know your almonds a variety like C.P.S.)
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
1 tablespoon of butter (if desired)

Put all the ingredients in a fry pan and stir.
Continue to stir.
Pour out onto a greased tray, or a tray covered in baking paper.  It is best to try and spread out the almonds to cool.  If they are left in large clumps, they are harder to separate to eat.

If you are unsure about people having a dairy allergy, just leave out the butter.
For added flavour or a little variety, put in a teaspoon or so of cinnamon.

I will make some of these ASAP and take photos of each step.

The key here is to keep stirring.  People always tend to stop when the almonds first become sugar coated.  However if you keep them on the heat and keep stirring past this stage, you will end up with beautiful glossy toffeed almonds that are shiny, taste delicious and look amazing.

This is always a refreshing change from chocolates.

Pippi's Piece -- Christmas Treats part 3

Bunches of Dried Bay Leaves

When we arrived here, in our small house on our small block, we had a HUGE bay tree in the back yard.  It was great for cooking, and numerous neighbours would knock on the door every so often, asking for some more leaves for their cooking.
Unfortunately the tree was so large we needed to cut it down as it was too close to the house and the foundations.
Mum has a HUGE tree.  SO I am going to cut some beautiful bunches of bayleaves, wash them all nicely, and tie them up with a lovely ribbon.  This will be another lovely Christmas gift for all the teachers, which is basically only going to cost me my time.  It will be appreciated by their teachers who enjoy cooking over their Christmas holidays.

Bay Leaves are also great to hang in the kitchen.  Smaller bunches look quite attractive and the dried bay leaves are great for keeping all those moths and weevils away from your pantry items.

Pippi's Piece -- Christmas Treats part 2

 JAM JAM and MORE JAM

My other easy creation Strawberry Jam in the Bread maker.  This is also especially cheap and easy, while Strawberries are so plentiful and reasonably priced.  I bought a few punnets for about $1 each.

In my Breadmaker, it asks for

• 500g of strawberries (hulled and slightly chopped) &
• 500g of sugar.

It then asks for some Jam setta, but I put some lemon juice in instead.
I put it on the Jam setting, and in about 1 hour, I had delicious homemade preservative free strawberry jam.  How easy is that????? 
Obviously,  you can use whatever other fruit  you have on hand. 

It is just divine  and so flavoursome - too much so in fact,  as I keep eating it on slices of freshly made homemade bread.  But it is so easy and of course we know exactly what is in it.  No preservatives, No Additives, No Flavours and No Colours.

My Freshly Made Strawberry Jam -- Yumm!!!

Pippi's Piece -- Christmas Treats Easy but Stylish - Part 1

There is nothing worse than those cheesy Christmas gifts.   Poor teachers received dozens "best teacher ever mugs" and a years supply of chocolates.

 I have a very dear friend who is a teacher at an exclusive Adelaide private school.  I remember when my dearest daughter #1 started school, asking her what presents she loves to get from her students at Christmas time.  I was expecting her to mention all the expensive chocolates and other beautiful items.  Yet she said her favourite things were the delicious homemade goods.

So this year I have decided to make delicious homemade produce for all of the class and extracurricula teachers. 

PRESERVED LEMONS

My mum's lemon tree has lemons, lemons and more lemons.  So many lemons we don't know what to do with them all.

I have decided to make preserved lemons.  I have followed Stephanie Alexander's recipe from her wonderful book "A Shared Table".
The recipe is extremely easy, however it takes numerou days.

I made one jar and it just looks so inviting, I have decided they will be great to give away for Christmas.

I have a very dear friend who is a teacher at an exclusive Adelaide private school.  I remember when my dearest daughter #1 started school, asking her what presents she loves to get from her students at Christmas time.  I was expecting her to mention all the expensive chocolates and other beautiful items.  Yet she said her favourite things were the delicious homemade goods.
So this year I have decided to make delicious homemade produce for all of the class and extracurricula teachers.

I have started my next batch of preserved lemons.  Here they are in a large pot, soaking in water.

It is so easy to do, I am wondering why more people don't do it.

I will update this with the recipe, after Mr S has finished with the computer!!!

Artichokes - How to cook them???

I went to the markets on the weekend and this gorgeous little lady sold me an artichoke.  I kept asking how to cook it, and in her broken english she kept telling me that it is good for my liver.
So I bought it and decided to come home and google.  Good Ol Google!!! What would we do without it!!!!!

I was surprised to find little information on cooking the artichoke on it's own, and I couldn't find an Australian Recipe on how to cook it.
There are recipes for stuffed artichokes and other recipes for them online, but not on how to cook or steam the artichoke by itself.  I have never cooked one before, so I was also unsure about what part of the flower to eat, as the ends of each leaf section has a strong spikey thorn type prickle, which would be very unpleasant to chew if it

 This is the globe artichoke flower, which is very different to the Jerasulem artichoke which are grown for the tubers which are eaten like potatoes.  I sometimes mash some in with our mashed potatoes to give a slight change of flavour, but it is very subtle.  The jerasulem artichoke looks something like ginger, being a pale cream coloured small knobbly tuber.

Anyway I have the globe artichoke flower.  I haven't been able to cook it yet, and I am very eager to do so and to try the flavour.
The Artichoke is related to the thistle plant and when you see the flowering plants you can clearly see the resemblence.

Globe Artichoke Flower in Bloom

Milk Thistle Flower (source wikipedia)

  

I could see the flower being very attractive in a contemporary floral arrangement too.

I finally came across this photo recipe site, so tomorrow I am going to embark on cooking my globe artichoke. 

Hope the children like it? - If not, I may have to go back to the floral arrangement idea!!!!!!!!!!!!

Glass Gem Corn Seeds

Well, I am still waiting for my glass gem corn seeds to arrive.  It hasn't been many days yet, but I am so eager, I can't wait.  I am like a child running to check the letter box each day.

The rest of our vegetable garden is growing really well.  We have planted squash, snow peas, cucumber, tomatoes and lettuce.

 Our fruit trees are also in full bloom, so we are  looking forward to a full summer of fresh organic produce from our garden.  Here are some pictures of our triple graphed pear tree.

One hint to stop slugs from eating all of your new plants is to put containers out with beer in them.  We have used old margarine containers and old yoghurt tubs.  We have half filled them with beer and placed them around the garden.  The slugs are attracted to the beer smell.  They creep into the beer containers and then can't get out again.  We had 9 slugs in one container out the front from the weekend.  Which is reassuring, as they were eating away all of our broccoli.    Here is our sage which the slugs have been enjoying!

As you can see, we have Sage, Parsley and Strawberries in the same pot.  However I must admit, I also have another pot of Parsley

As we don't have much space, I have planted some plants straight into our front garden.  Broccoli seedlings have been slotted amongst the agapanthus right next to our front gate.  The get full sun and grow well in that position.

I dont' know how but I seem to have rotated or inverted the last two photos as I have inserted them.  I will investigate this.

For all those avid gardners in Adelaide, you will now that this Saturday coming up is the ABC Carpark Caper - Gardener's Market. 
It is held from 8:30 at the ABC Carpark,  Cnr North East Road and Rosetta St, Collinswood.  There is a gold coin donation entrance fee, with the proceeds going to The Smith Family
The Car Park Caper is a place to get bargain priced quality plants from avid gardeners who can provide in depth information about how and where to grow your plants.  When I first started gardening and had little knowledge, I found it to be a great place to get some good bargains with sound knowledge.  I am looking forward to going again this Saturday 13th October.  I hope to get some more vegetable seedlings ready for feeding the hungry children in summer.

Mr S now needs the computer so it is Ciao for Now!

Pippi's Piece Drive -ins = Savings!!!!

We all know kids just LOVE to go to see the latest movie!

We also know that it costs a fortune!!!!!!!!!!!
 With 4 kids it adds up to about $89.50 for me alone to take the children without Mr S.  How expensive is that!!!

Here enters the Drive-Ins.

We are fortunate in Adelaide to have a great Drive- In that is fairly close to the city.  It is only $22 per car load for up to 5 passengers  (extra person only $8).  SO if we go to the drive-ins instead of the cinema we are saving $59.50. For information see Wallis Main-line Drive-ins

We go & pack our deck chairs.  When we get there we get our chairs out, all line up & sit outside to watch the movie.  We pack pillows and blankets and the children have a great time.  Of course the next way to save $$$ is to pack all of your own food.  I make pop-corn in our pop-corn maker.  We received this as a gift one Christmas and we use it all the time.

It is quick and easy.  It means the children have a preservative free, high fibre snack which they think is a treat.  Sometimes I do add some salt, or sugar, or make a caramel topping, but most of the time they eat it plain.   Even when we get a small treat at the kiosk for each child, it still works out so much cheaper than going to the cinemas.

The next advantage is that if the youngest is really young, they can fall asleep in the back of the car, rather than whingeing half way through the movie, that they wantto go home.

Also in a cinema when the children ask questions throughout the movie, you are constantly trying to whisper or telling them to be quiet.  At the drive-ins, if you park a little further away from the other cars, you can answer the children's questions or let them talk throughout the film without disturbing other patrons.

Finally my tips on going to the drive-ins here in Adelaide.

•  It is best to go in the Autumn and Spring.  Winter is often too cold.  Even if all the children sit in the back of the station wagon, with the rear door up, it can get cold.  There is also more chance of rain.
• In Summer Daylight Savings means that the movies start to late for the younger children.  .
• I prefer to go on a night where it is not to dark - by this I mean - when the moon is bright. If it is too dark, and you do sit outside with your deck chairs / bean bags etc, you can't see where you have put everything.  I also prefer  it to be  a bright moon, so you can keep an eye on the kids and know exactly where they are all the time. However if you do go on a darker night, don't forget a torch, so you can quickly find that dropped packet of tictacs or jaffas or favourite teddy that the children have dropped onto the ground.

 So a big Thumbs up for the Wallis Main-line Drive-ins at Gepps Cross in Adelaide.  The only downside, is that there is not much choice on the time (obviously it needs to be at night) and the movie to view (there is only 1 screen, so only one movie at a time).  Most nights they screen numerous movies at later session times, with the children's movie on first.  But if that movie is not what your children want to see, then you need to wait until it either comes on, or you need to go elsewhere.

That is our dilema today.  The children want to see "Madagascar 3", this week, and at the Drive-ins they are screening "Diary of a Wimpy Kid 3".
So I did the search for the cheapest tickets to the movies.  Fortunately through our health insurance we can purchase discounted online movie tickets.  So if you also have health insurance you may want to check if your company does the same.

Today I have my 2 nieces staying with me, so for 1 adult and 5 children it is going to cost me $106.50.   Can you believe it?  That is just ridiculous & there is no way we can afford that.  Luckily through our health insurance I can get the tickets for $53.00. Which makes it far more reasonable and much more affordable.

So I must run, as we are all off to the movies!!