Feather your Nest Friday, 12th May, 2023.
It has been a big week! Again! I have still been blessed with produce, even at this late stage of Autumn. I also founds packets of a fresh soup mix on a big mark down and put them in the freeze drier. This is great stuff, it is also something we could make with various stems and leaves as we process our garden (or even purchased produce) in order to use up everything. This mix contained... Carrot, Celery, Leeks, Turnip, Parsnip, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Parsley.
I love how the freeze drier gives me an end result that looks basically exactly the same as how it went in.
This is before...
I was given Quinces. They are just cooling now because they spent the day in the slow cooker. I now have Quince paste, which we love!
My GF Sour Dough grew well so I made a couple of things. First I made Sticky Buns. I can't say they are as good as regular but they were pretty good.
I shared these with Mum. Then I made a really big pizza. This also worked pretty well.
Right now I have a Raisin Bread loaf rising. It is kind of an experiment to see how far it will rise. I will see how that turns out.
I was given Rhubarb. That is in the slow cooker right now with apples. So yes, I have two slow cookers working together. Several times this week I had two going along with the freeze drier.
On Tuesday I went to town and did a really big stock up shop. Everything I think is a basic necessity for baking... cornflour, icing sugar, sultanas, sugar, rice, pasta, butter, bi carb, golden syrup and so on I got six. It took me until lunch time Wednesday to put it all away.
The fridge really was needing a big clean and sort out. I finally tackled that yesterday. I took everything out, took it apart, washed and dried all the shelves and components and started again. If anyone came I was planning to pretend not to be home! The end result though was so nice and when I open the fridge door it smells of vanilla.
Each day the hens have had at least an hour out and about. We also filled all the nesting boxes with fresh bedding and the whole hen house with hay that was left over in the bottom of the hay shed. It was enough to winterise the whole coop. The chickens were jumping in the nesting boxes fluffing the bedding around and having a happy time. Hens are easy to make happy. Their trough was cleaned out by Andy and it all looks 100% better.
I made a big pasta dish that we love. Years ago we went to a place that had amazing pasta and this was the most popular dish. My attempt to make a copy cat turned out really well and its so easy. I cut up chicken and fry it up with two or three onions, chopped. Once it is all brown and nice I add a tin (or two if I am making heaps) of tomato soup. I let this simmer for an hour or so to get nice tender chicken. Then I add a block or cream cheese and stand and stir that until it is blended well. I sometimes add a little garlic or onion powder.... and a little cream. This is so delicious and I serve over pasta with some cheese on top. It's a crowd pleaser!
I have another one from my friend Hilde. So we call it Hilde's Pasta. It is similar... the chicken and the onions.... then a packet of spinach, optional... chopped mushrooms or sun dried tomato or both, some garlic or garlic powder, .... a block of cream cheese, a carton of cream. It is so good!
Nice big red tomatoes still ripened in the orchard and we used them up as fast as they came in.
Eggs came in as well which are bright yellow thanks to all the grass the chickens are getting.
Wendy had given me size 3 Fowlers Canning lids. Fowlers jars in Australia are like Ball jars in America, what our Grandmothers mainly used. I have the jars and I have the lids... so I went through my stash and figured out how many complete sets I have which is a jar, matching ring, clip and lid. I use these for canning, dehydrated or freeze dried goods or dry storage. Then I ordered rings and clips because they were what I lacked. These arrived today so I will match everything up and line them up on my work bench. It is just good to have plenty of jars ready!
While in town I went to the little library. It is so cute and now has a bench seat as well.
I always take books and I always find something. The tub on the left is for reference books.
We picked the very last apples and took the net off the tree. Now all the nets are away until next Spring when we start again. It was our best season and harvest so far!
Today I was just trying to put stuff away, package things up and so on. Then this afternoon we helped a friend get a load of wood. It was absolutely beautiful to be out in the paddocks in the sunshine. The cows thought they would help but when they didn't recognise our friend they ran off!
It was beautiful. I filled bags with kindling, because you always need kindling!
No more calves, we sit at five... who are very friendly! They are very nosey about the car.
We had four pretty big bon fires. Our biggest one might be next week but it was good to get some done.
I have some crochet and sewing going but I haven't got far enough for pictures.
How have you been building your home? I hope it was a good week. Happy Mothers Day to all the Mums for Sunday! xxx
This is so encouraging and inspiring. I love to see how busy and productive everyone is. Homemaking is a great deal of work. The pizza looks delicious. I had never heard of freeze drying vegetables. What a great idea!
ReplyDeleteDear Mrs White, Thank you so much! Freeze drying for veggies and meat is just a game changer. Yes homemaking is a huge job! I am glad to have a little bit quieter Saturday! Have a lovely weekend! With love Annabel.xxx
DeleteDear Annabel,
ReplyDeleteYou had a very busy, productive week. Your freeze-dried mixed vegetables look wonderful. What a blessing to have so much stored long term.
My week was appointments, orders and planning. I can't say I accomplished much visibly, but made great strides planning for going forward. After this month, the appointments should calm down and I can get back to what needs done at home.
John rearranged the dining room furniture, per my vision, and we are both much happier with it. Anything that seems off to me or doesn't flow well really bothers my productivity. I simply don't want to be in that area.
Since I still have an uncomfortable infection where the tooth was removed, I have done quiet work, such as planning mentioned above and sorting through papers that need filed. I do have quite a lot of that type of activity left to do.
I wish all of the Bluebirds that are celebrating Mother's Day this Sunday a wonderful, peaceful, much loved day.
Love and hugs,
Glenda
Dear Glenda, A tooth infection is awful. It sounds like you may need stronger antibiotics. A lot of salt rinses as well. I hope you had a very happy Mothers Day. Mum and I and my girls all had a beautiful day!
DeleteThe weekend was so busy I am starting the new week out rather slowly! With much love Annabel.xxx
I really enjoy your posts! I am in between homes so I am looking forward to getting into my new home next week and arranging all the shelves so everything can be organized! I gave away 100% of my freezer and 3/4 of my pantry to the food bank since I can’t store the food anywhere for awhile. The food bank was very grateful, they said their shelves were very thin. Next for me is restocking this summer and fall. Love the cows ;). Might need a closeup of them (or Scout) if you get a chance. Thank you. Hilogene in Az
ReplyDeleteThanks Hilogene. It was wonderful of you to donate so much food. I am sure that will help many others. I hope you can restock a basic pantry as soon as possible when you get into your new home. How exciting! I will get these photos especially for you this week! With love Annabel.xxx
DeleteI would love the recipe for your gf sourdough starter. My daughter has celiac (diagnosed within the last year) and I am always on the lookout for her some yummy gf foods. Thank you if you are able to share.
ReplyDeleteDear Annon, Firstly with GF flour you can make pretty much anything from your usual recipes...pancakes, bread, scones, biscuits, pastry, muffins etc. So much cheaper. I took one spoon of my daughters regular sour dough starter and fed it bit by bit with GF flour... until I had about four cups of starter. Then I began making things. This took a week. I am not sure if this would be good enough for a celiac... but I think if you kept going you can eventually say you have a complete GF starter. I hope this helps!xxx
DeleteI would so appreciate it if you could give recipe for the gf sourdough starter. My daughter was recently diagnosed with celiac. I am on the lookout for all the gf foods I can. I don’t want her to feel deprived. Thank you in advance. I will have to post as anonymous but my name is Kim Creasy. I live in the state of Tennessee, in the U.S.
ReplyDeleteKim, I just replied above before I saw this comment. Make your daughters favourite things with GF flour, truly it works so well and no one notices.xxx
DeleteThat really was a big week Annabel! What great additions you made to your pantry. The chicken recipes sound lovely, and your gluten free baking is looking great!
ReplyDeleteWe had my daughters birthday party last weekend. It was really lovely, very simple and fun.
We have had a very busy week and there has been heavy rain most days. I love rain, but it doesn’t do my laundry pile any favours. Yesterday was beautifully sunny and I washed and dried so much laundry!
We changed provider for electricity and internet this week. It will save us a lot of money. I’m so happy about this. When I rang to tell the old internet provider we were switching they offered me a much cheaper plan. This really annoys me, they were quite happy to keep charging me at the higher rate until I said we were changing. The new provider is just over half the price of the old one. So it will be a noticeable saving which is very welcome.
Have a lovely weekend!
Jen (NZ)
Dear Jen, Well done on changing companies. This is the same with many things here. They do nothing for loyal customers but give amazing deals to new ones. Well good bye!
DeleteIt sounds like a lovely Birthday for your daughter. I am glad you got a change to get the laundry out! Today is such a day... sunny with a gentle breeze, just lovely! Have a great weekend! With love Annabel.xxx
Hi Annabel and everyone,
ReplyDeleteWhat a good busy week you had, Annabel! All of your cooking looks so delicious. Well done on the jars and all of the outside work, too. I love working outdoors when the weather is nice, too.
This week I tried hard to get ahead with extra cooking since next week has a bunch of appointments and chemo. Baking/cooking day and my trusty bread machine and crockpots produced pizza scrolls, dinner rolls, mixed berry muffins (to use up some frozen berries), impossible pie, pot roast & veggies, and a depression cake (no eggs or oil) with a chocolate frosting. The cake was for our anniversary, and afterward I sliced it up for the freezer. The little freezer was cleaned out so it could be defrosted, and moved so the contractor had space to put in the new furnace. Thursday they installed our new furnace and AC unit and did a beautiful job; the gentleman doing the work was very kind and friendly and took pains to build up the earth around the new concrete pad so that it would look nice and I could plant around it. The weather was gorgeous, so all of the throw rugs were washed and earlier in the week I mowed and weeded front and back lawns and moved some old edgers from around our big tree - I will reuse them elsewhere in the garden and want to plant pretty shade-loving ground cover plants under that tree.
Crafts-wise, I put some more stitches in a new cross-stitch pattern and knitted up a worsted-weight shawl for a little instant gratification while work continues on the fingering-weight shawl bit by bit. I used cards from my stash for a couple of friends and family to receive a little love in the mail, and gave away an old king bed frame to some folks who are super excited to have it. It doesn't fit in our bedroom, and it is a nice piece, so I am happy it will be used and loved, and not end up in a landfill!
Thank you everyone for your sweet comments last week and prayers, it all means so much to me. My husband is doing a bit better in spirit this week and it gives him a lift to know the bluebirds are praying for him. A meeting with the surgeon today let us know he does not need more surgery for the bleeding issue, but that we can manage it with silver nitrate sticks - I think this is good! Another surgery would be a big recovery time. Afterward we went to see the horses and the warm sun and happy horses also did him a lot of good.
I hope everyone has a wonderful week!
<3
Kathy
Kathy,
DeleteI can't believe how much you get done with your husband's illness. Lord bless you! Thank you for keeping us updated so we know how to pray for him...and for you.
Blessings, Leslie
Dear Kathy, I agree with Leslie you are a marvel. I love how your baking day you had the hand maidens helping. You achieved such a lot. The news about not needing surgery is very good and an outing in the sunshine to see the horses was perfect. Surgery for sure is a set back and a lot of recovery. So this is wonderful. Passing on the bed frame and getting the furnace done were great too.
DeleteWeek by week you are doing so well, I know many of us are praying and you are a wonderful example to us all. With love Annabel.xxx
Dear Leslie, Thank you so much for your prayers. They mean so much and it helps my husband so much to hear that people are praying for him. I am humbled by your kindness. <3 Kathy
DeleteDear Annabel, Thank you so much for your prayers and for the words of encouragement. You (and all of the bluebirds) have been such a help and inspiration to me for years. I can't do much about my husband's actual illness, and I desperately wish I could - but what I tell myself is that I *can* make home a comfortable and nice place for him, where hopefully he knows he is loved. And cook the things he likes! <3 Kathy
Annabel I hope you find some time just for yourself. You are so busy that a bit of slow down time and rest might be in order.
ReplyDeleteI know I did a lot this week but for the life of me I dont remember doing much at all. I have been busy catching up on the house and reorganising spaces to make them more effective and useful. I helped Katie out a couple of days and I went to one of my groups and caught up with friends. The poor garden has been sadly neglected. Thankfully we have had a small amount of rain so this is keeping things growing.
I baked up a loaf of bread and a foccacia. Both turned out well. However I used wholemeal flour, that was given to me, and we're not great fans of the flavour. The focaccia has made good toast spread with our home grown avocados. What we dont eat of these breads will make good bread crumbs.
I have some choconana muffins in the oven right now and the house smells delicious.
The only crafting I have done this week, was some spinning. I have done nothing else. I am really feeling the lack of creative output. I might have to do something about that soon.
Life is good.
Dear Jane, Thank you! The weekend was so busy but good. Today (Monday morning) I slept in and havent moved yet. (10 am). I needed a big sleep!
DeleteI remember what you did with all the furniture re arranging! You did a lot.
Check the wholemeal flour smells fresh... if so I would just use a cup here and there with regular flour. I understand when work overtakes sewing and craft.... lets hope both our new weeks allow some of both! With much love Annabel.xxx
I love your week, non stop but so happy. I did a big top up shop too. Then I emptied, defrosted and cleaned one of the freezers. Wiping the walls with a little vegetable oil really helps slip the ice off. I started two sourdough one with white flour and one with spelt to see how they go. Then I started rhubarb champagne to use up some of the rhubarb. Made berry jam using the berries from the freezer. Started Worcestershire sauce, we seem to be going through it faster lately. Picked more rosemary and hung it above the fire to dry, it smells lovely. We have more firewood coming, so I tidied up an area we can use to stack it and keep it dry. We are so grateful for free firewood, it will make a big difference to our heating costs this winter. It sounds a lot but there was still time to sit in the sunshine and enjoy it with a cup of tea and a biscuit. Have a blessed week everyone.
ReplyDeleteRhubarb champagne sounds just wonderful. I know the colour will be gorgeous too! I love the smell of Rosemary! In face I do think the scent of it in the house is immune building. Free firewood is fantastic! I am happy for you on that! Have a good new week! With love Annabel.xxx
DeleteWhat an amazing week you have had, Annabel. The soup mix dried out nicely. Well done! The mini library is so cute. Bless the person who built each one.
ReplyDeleteMy week was spent weeding and planting in my spare time. My eldest daughter has been taking over my baking of sandwich bread, Chocolate Beet bread (for breakfast and snacks), and Monster Bars which are no-bakes. I kept us stocked in homemade laundry soap, homemade mayonnaise, granola, and meat broth. My daughter also brought home some lovely scalloped potatoes from work.
Our big savings was in gasoline. Only $3.09 a gallon! So we filled up both cars.
Also I was able to buy 3 large bags of mulch for the flower beds. This was my Mother's Day gift. I compost for the garden. But mulch looks so much tidier in the beds next to the house. Also will keep the weeds down.
Happy Mother's Day to all!
Blessings, Leslie
Dear Leslie, It sounds like your daughter is very capable and that is wonderful to hear. Tell her good job from me.
DeleteGlad you could get gas cheaper and take advantage of that. Mulch for the garden is a great gift! We gardeners understand that! I hope you had a very happy Mother Day and have a good new week. Love Annabel.xxxx
Hi Annabel just fairly new to your blog. Could you please tell me where you bought your freeze drier and the aprox cost. I have only found very expensive ones. Thanks Penny
ReplyDeleteDear Penny, Welcome, I am so happy to have you here! I am in Australia, just making sure you know that. I havent had my freeze drier a year yet. Freeze driers were not even available here when I first began learning about them. Now OzFarmer sells Harvest Right freeze driers. They are a BIG investment. Also a big appliance hence I set up a whole freeze drying table. I got the medium. I hope that helps, love Annabel.xxx
DeleteHappy Mother's Day to you Annabel, to your sweet Mom, to Lucy and Chloe and Happy Mother'Day to all the lovely Bluebirds. With love from far away, Laura_s_world in Romania,
ReplyDeleteDear Laura, I hope you ad a happy Mother s Day as well. Thank you! I am hoping you have a good Spring week of good weather for your garden and hens! With much love Annabel.xxx
DeleteI took inspiration from you, Three Rivers and Ruth Ann Zimmerman and decided to see what I could 'produce' each week in my home. I concentrate hard on food just now, but I consider any craft or sewing, etc. as a product that was produced in my home.
ReplyDeleteI planted all the things I'd bought save three tomato plants. Some of the plants I will use to propagate more plants like the coleus and the heart plant and some of the herbs once they get bigger. I planted little stems of things I'd rooted in water and kept over winter. Soon I'll be pruning back the poinsettias and I'll try to root those stems. I've had some success with this as well.
We are going to be doing a kitchen renovation, so I'm trying to 'produce' leftovers enough to freeze for second meals in the size that will fit my toaster oven (how I plan to cook during the upheaval), or that I can dump and toss into the slow cooker. I'm including in the frozen items cooked leftover rice and cooked leftover pasta.
This week I 'produced' two bags of bread cubes to use in making Stratas, one jar of croutons, topped up my bread crumb jar, made bread, put onion tops/bottoms, celery ends in the freezer for future stock making, made up a big pan of tuna pasta salad and tossed in what veg I had in the fridge. I've got a few apple cores I want to turn into apple vinegar. I finally braved up and opened a jar I made two years ago and it's terrific! Now I feel super confident to make more.
I made cookies, all our meals and introduced my grandson to smoothies. Today he asked if I'd make him a moo'ie so I guess that was a good idea, lol. It used up ripe bananas I'd frozen, some strawberries at the wrinkly side of their life span and a bit of milk. He was pleased as punch.
Dear Terri, I feel honoured to include me along with Jessica and Ruth Ann. Your comment has given me an idea thank you... you will see!
DeleteAll the plants are production for sure as are the meals, croutons, bread and more. Well done on the vinegar! A smoothie is a good way to get all sorts of good things into a child. Good idea there and sounds like it was a hit.
Have a great new week, I am sure you will continue to produce lots more! With love, Annabel.xxx
Dear Annabel, Happy Mother's Day - thankyou for your Mothering Influence. Love Clare
ReplyDeleteDear Clare, Thank you! I hope you had a lovely Mothers Day too! With much love Annabel.xxx
DeleteHappy Mothers Day, Annabel! What a wonderful example you are to your daughters and granddaughters!! ❤️
ReplyDeleteThank you so much Jenny! xxx
DeleteHappy Mother’s Day, Annabel and thank you for being my inspiration as a mother! I love your veges in jars, the pantry must look lovely. I also love your baking! Delicious. I feel I haven’t achieved much, but then I probably have. Fruit trees were mulched and fertilised today. I also received a huge bag of delicious mandarins- some of which I have given to my family. I’m crocheting bit by bit. Next I need to make a stack of wash cloths. Lots of love, Lily
ReplyDeleteDear Lily, Thank you! I am making wash cloths as well. Getting the trees mulched and fertilised is good and a bag of mandarins was a bonus! With love Annabel.xxx
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