14

Jun

carrot, sweet potato and cumin soup

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This is another recipe I got from the net about 10 years ago now, that I’ve translated back into ‘real’ food. The earthy flavour of the cumin balances the sweetness of the carrot and sweet potato, although I always think a little cumin goes a long way. Despite this, cumin is probably the spice that we go through the most of. This recipe is a little different, while still being quite cheap.

This is nice garnished with carrot chips. Just run a potato peeler down a carrot and fry the strips in hot oil until crisp.

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11

Jun

make your own pants tutorial round up

I’ve done a skirt roundup, and a top roundup, so I the next obvious step is pants. Now I just have to find the time to make some (but I think I still need to start with a skirt first!)

While there are hundreds of tutorials on the interwebs for kids pants, I found it difficult to find adult pants tutorials. Some of the kids ones can be translated into adults ones though, I’m sure.

The Katherine Hepburn pants tutorial is unfortunately incomplete, but it does show how to take your measurements and how to draft your own pants pattern. Couple this info with the links on how to alter pants patterns below and you can make endless pants designs.&

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9

Jun

vegetable gardening guide

title I was watching Gardening Australia the other night when they mentioned their online vegetable planting guide. I popped on over to have a look, and it’s pretty good, so I thought I would share. You can find the guide here at the Gardening Australia website.

home

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7

Jun

mince bake

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This dish was inspired by a recipe I read on an American cooking website a few years ago. I had to convert the dish back into real food, however. Real onion instead of onion powder, real cheese instead of slices of plastic cheese, and I threw in some vegetables to make it a bit healthier.

You can add whatever vegetables you have in the crisper. Sometimes I will also throw in some kidney beans and some chilli or paprika for a different taste. Also, a splash of wine is always a welcome addition. If you prefer, use ready made passata or pasta sauce in place of the paste, tinned toms and herbs.

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4

Jun

time shifter or thief? where frugal meets breaking the law

748065_pirates I’m not sure that I should be making this a public confession, but I have a history of criminal activity.

It all began the year Roxette’s Joy Ride made it to number one on the charts. It was the first time I remember being allowed to stay up after my bed time and I painstakingly recorded the top 100 off the radio – ‘the best of 1991’ for my personal music collection. And I still have that cassette somewhere.

With today’s technology, it’s pretty easy to copy copyrighted material. I have a stack of recipes photocopied from library books, a friend burned me a copy of a CD, I’ve downloaded music off YouTube, visited bit torrent sites, placed a DVD on hold at the library with the explicit purpose of copying it for future use…

There is no end to my criminal activities.

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3

Jun

revised posting schedule

2010-05-30 16.59.03 Sleep deprivation is getting the better of me. I’ve finally taken my husband’s advice and for the next few months, I’ll be posting articles on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays only.

I have a lot I want to do with this website: a resources page as I’ve mentioned before, an eBook or two, some videos and more in-depth, useful and (I hope) interesting articles and newsletters, but I’m struggling with time to get everything done and to stay sane at the same time. Also, next month I’m going to start teaching again, an evening or two a week, so until I get a bit more organised and on top of everything, I’ll be posting a little bit less often. I hope you understand.

Don’t forget, there’s a link at the top of the page to subscribe via email or RSS to make reading easier. If there is anything in particular that you would like me to write about, leave a comment or drop me a line.

2

Jun

giving the dishwasher a holiday

867394_dishes Summer. The old hall hot and stuffy, dust riding in on the late afternoon sunlight. The wooden trestles lined down the length of the room and on each a basin and a pile of dishes. And standing in front of each basin is a brown tunic clad girl.

Brown Owl (aptly named, her brown bodice stretched over ample bosom) marching up and down the ranks, inspecting the work, barking orders. She had narrowly escaped an encounter with a king brown on the way up Hangman’s Hill earlier that day and she had developed a new found sense of exuberance. Under her watchful eye, we learn the correct way to wash and wipe the dishes.

Do they still have Brownies? I think they’re part of the Girl Guides now. And I think the emphasis is more on community, leadership and outdoor activities and less on the finer arts of washing the dishes, folding hospital-corner bed sheets, sewing on buttons and pouring tea. Probably not a bad thing, I suspect.

There is an art to washing up, but in a world of dishwashers (of the electric kind), it’s a dying skill. I’m not going to tell you how you should wash up (and I try not to tell DH too often), instead I though I would share with you the way we were taught that afternoon at Brownie camp.

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1

Jun

a man drove into town – a story of modern economics

1253439_street_light I read this on Frugal For Life (an American frugal blog) and thought it noteworthy and amusing enough to share. Head on over and have a read of Dawn’s blog, it’s well worth the visit.

It’s a slow day in a little Lancashire town. The sun is beating down, and the streets are deserted. Times are tough, everybody is in debt, and everybody lives on credit.

On this particular day a rich tourist from down south is driving through town. He stops at the motel and lays a £100 in cash on the desk saying he wants to inspect the rooms upstairs in order to pick one to spend the night.

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31

May

choc caramel and almond slice

This is a slice recipe I found in an old magazine. I made this for Mother’s Day. My mum reminded me that she used to make this all the time, but with peanuts, which is probably why I can’t remember as I’m not a fan of peanuts in deserts.

This slice is very sweet (anything that involved a can of condensed milk is going to be sweet), but quite moorish nevertheless. And it got gobbled up before I got a chance to take a picture.

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28

May

have your say: the Australian national curriculum

1126726_home_work_close-up_1 You may have seen the TV ads about the community consultation for the National Curriculum. Basically, the government is asking for your feedback on the proposed National Curriculum.

Personally, I’m not in support for a national curriculum. I know this is not a popular opinion. If you get the curriculum ‘wrong’, then everyone is wrong. Nor do I believe in a lemming society. National curriculum can lead to national brainwashing. Just some of the quotes from the introductory video makes me raise an eyebrow: “…teachers now know what to teach – it’s really quite explicit…” and “…there should be less in it…”

On the other hand, I teach computers at an Adult Education centre where the main classes are for adult literacy and numeracy. The centre manager noted that most of the students in these classes nowadays are 18 year olds straight out of high school. So in our state at least, something needs to change.

Anyway, rant aside, if we are going to have a national curriculum, then it is a good idea to go online, check it out and have your say as to what you feel should be included.

Even though I originally studied to be an English teacher, it was the Maths curriculum that I was most interested in today. Particularly, I wanted to look at whether they intend to teach money skills. I have to say that I thought the proposed curriculum looked pretty impressive.

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