Plums!

It's high summer here and our poor plum tree is groaning under the weight of the fruit. The birds are loving it and much of what is on the ground is already half eaten by them.

I sent the girls out to pick up all the rotting fruit that we hadn't got to in time. They filled up 2 buckets before deciding it wasn't worth the $2 apiece. Child labour isn't as cheap as it used to be. I think they got about half cleared away. I may have to bribe them some more tomorrow.

Meanwhile I have been offloading gifting plums to everyone. As well as plums in my fruit bowl I have made plum jam and plum cordial. Apparently you can use the leftover pulp from the cordial processing to make fruit leather but I decided against it, at least for this year.

The freezer is full of beans, sweetcorn, and broccoli ready for the cooler months. Tomatoes are now cheap so I will be making and bottling Annabel Langbein's harvest tomato sauce over the next week. We love it as a base for pizzas.

Updates

There have been a heap of changes since I started ( and subsequently neglected) this blog. The first huge one is we have escaped the rent trap! Yes we have done the impossible and entered the Auckland house market. And on one income to boot! We are immediately better off as our mortgage and rates is less than we paid in rent. Which is insane.

So I am blogging from my own dining room in my own run down house. And just waking up is our other big change; Our son.

Over the last year I have been hard at work figuring out ways to slash our budget and have been really successful. So I figure I really should start recording it all again (now that I'm not fighting sleep deprivation on a regular basis).

Now I have a house to maintain, a garden to plant, and a household to run. Should be a lot of opportunities to find new ideas.

Planning ahead

Now is a great time to look out for cheap summer produce and blanche and freeze for winter. I did this last summer with sweetcorn. Today I am taking advantage of cheap broccoli to escape paying huge amounts six months from now.

If you have space in your freezer, lay the produce out on a tray, lined with baking paper, in a single layer for the initial freeze. Then transfer to a zip lock bag. This will stop the veges clumping together in a rock hard icy mass. If not then drain as much water as possible from them and pat dry before bagging.

Grapefruit Sorbet

I've done it! I've found the best use for the grapefruit on my tree.
Grapefruit Sorbet. I scouted the internet and adapted a few recipes expecting a fair bit of trial and error and... aced it on my first try!

The BEST thing is as far as I'm concerned it tastes like a grapefruit and lemon Fruju. These things are my go-to in summer and were a godsend throughout my pregnancies. Now these seem to be seasonal for summer only so in winter I just go without. Until now.

I forgot to take a photo when I made it and it didn't take long to eat through most of it, but since photos are always nice. Here's the tiny smidgen I have left. Time to make more tomorrow :)

My recipe is as follows:
Equal quantities of sugar and water - I used a tall water glass of each.
Put in a saucepan on a moderate heat and DO NOT stir.
Leave it until it boils and then boil for 3 minutes.

Set aside to cool to room temperature.

Add 2 cups of grapefruit juice, 1 TBSP zest, 1 TBSP of alcohol (I used white rum as that was what I had but apparently vodka is good for being tasteless while still preventing the sorbet from freezing solid).

Stir and put into a dish that has been kept in the freezer for an hour.

After it is frozen to semi solid state stir it vigorously with a fork.
Put back in freezer for a few more hours until frozen to sorbet consistency.

Just a word of warning, like any grapefruit product you shouldn't eat this if you are on the birth control pill, blood thinners, antidepressants and possibly some other meds as well. Basically if you're on meds please check first. Grapefruit likes to meddle with medicine.

This recipe would work just as well I think with any other fruit juice/liquid substituted.

Mmmm bagels

Homemade bagels with homemade plum jam. Awesome! Bagels are my new 'easy-to-make-not-worth-buying' discovery.


In other news I'm in serious need of garden inspiration. Happily this year my beetroot were big enough to actually eat (and a gorgeous jeweled purple colour to boot) but now they're gone I'm faced with the standard winter dilemma - what to plant that I actually want to eat?

I already have celery planted on the hubby's suggestion. I'm not that partial to celery but I figured I could use it for soups etc. during winter. Typically it is thriving. I really don't like the standard 'space filler' Bok Choy and all variants of it. I'm tempted to just plant heaps and heaps of Kale. I already have 9 plants of it but my kids REALLY like Kale chips.

I have my wood all ready for winter again and happily it's been really warm lately. Although I'm dying to get started with the cosy fires I'm also pleased that it means our wood will last through whatever winter we get thrown at us.

Redid the budget. Food shop per week has been set at $180. Ah for the days where we got change from $150. Even at $180 it's only achievable because we've switched from upmarket to budget supermarkets. Personally I hate the supermarket in question and its horrid yellow lights and tall shelves that look like they're plotting to crush and end you in the most undignified way possible. But hubby does the shop and it seriously saves us $35 each time.

Food rewards (now with pictures!)

Now my garden is well established one of the best feelings is making recipes which contain a majority of items from my own garden.

I've decided to start sharing the results partly as a pat on the back for myself, partly to share new food ideas, mostly because blogs with pictures are pretty :-)

So my first food entry comes courtesy of a free Sanitarium recipe book.

Warm capsicum, tomato, burghul, and baked feta salad

Featuring chives, red onion, capsicum, cherry tomatoes and basil from my garden. Isn't it gorgeous? It was very tasty too although the kids weren't convinced. You can get the recipe online here.

As an aside Sanitarium has a free info service with qualified nutritionists and dietitians. You can email or freephone. There are also links on that page to sign up to get free recipes via email. Pretty good deal. I guess nutritionists and dietitians don't have to just be for the wealthy after all.

It's all about priorities

My mother heard an interesting saying which she relayed to me and as some sayings do it has stuck with me for quite a while. It goes like this:

You can't tell who's swimming naked until the tide goes out.

What does it mean? Well basically when things are going well in the economy it is easier for people to keep up appearances even if their income doesn't support it. But once things take a turn for the worst, as it has the last few years, those overextended people soon become quite apparent.

I think almost all of us have been guilty of being a bit careless with money in the past. Nothing like a 'good' Global Economic Crisis to pull us all into line.

We are by no means perfect when it comes to being frugal but one thing that I am proud of is that we do not overextend ourselves with HPs, overdrafts and credit card debt. Oh we did once. It took a year to pay off that consolidated loan. Lesson learned and never again!

Anyway the 'best' thing about the current situation (apart from ongoing low interest rates) is that people are starting to get creative. There's a new surge in home made clothes and crafts. I'm sure it's no accident that Pinterest is growing so exponentially. So many good ideas there. Gardening is taking off again. Old recipes are being unearthed. People are trying new tastes - especially protein sources such as pulses and beans. Nosh has even waged a price war with the supermarkets on the price of milk. (yes I know it's a loss-leader and don't even get me started on how wrong it is that there should ever be a cause for a war on such a basic commodity...)

And yet I constantly hear of people struggling because they don't prioritise. Don't get me wrong. I appreciate it is hard out there. I am not saying that people are struggling simply because of wrong choices (thanks John Key) but there are a few that could be a little smarter. Here's a bit of 'brain spew' from my completely unqualified noggin:

• If you're finding it hard don't go nuts on label clothing for the kids. Honestly I think clothing children (shoes excluded) is the cheapest part of having them right now. If you want new stuff buy on sale for the following year. Otherwise second hand op shop stuff is usually in pretty good nick and very cheap. The retail sector is struggling - there are sales everywhere. You should not have to buy stuff at full price.

• Make use of your garden. If you don't have a garden make one in pots and containers. If you don't have the time or this isn't an option then buy at your local market. We did it the other weekend and got an entire week's worth of produce for under $20. There were 4 vege stalls to choose from. Get friendly with your neighbours and swap unused fruit for some of the end result preserves that you are going to make.

• Learn how to cook some meals meat free. There are heaps of other protein sources. Also stop with the takeouts - they're stupidly expensive. (OK confession, we still do takeouts once a week).

• Plan your trips. Walk when possible. Petrol is expensive. Also in the same vein, car servicing when possible is important. It's more expensive to fix if you wait until things go wrong. Try and put money aside for this and do it annually.

• The horrid 'B' word. Make a budget. Go and see Sorted.org (link on the side)

• Don't let the banks keep raising your credit card limits. Stay on top of this. Try to only use your credit card for emergencies and only spend what you can pay off in the month.

• And the most important one - Learn to differentiate needs from wants.
  * SKY is not a need - we don't have it. We are still alive.
  * New couch on 24 months HP. Be very careful because there is no such thing as a 'free lunch'. Also I would strongly discourage anyone from buying items with a quick devaluation on HP unless they absolutely have to. That's phones, computers and definitely cars.
  *Cloth nappies. Yes you can have too many. You don't need a limited edition whatever. It's a NAPPY. It will not feed your children.
  * Just follow the golden rule - ask yourself 'do I really need this?' This doesn't mean never treat yourself. In fact I would recommend you put money in your budget for little treats. It would be a sad world indeed with no coffee ;) Just be sensible.

Most of this is not rocket science. Most of you will probably be doing this and more now. But you would be surprised the amount of people who are not managing simply because they are not prioritising needs and wants and still trying to live outside their means. Do yourselves a favour and live frugally - you will feel freer than you would running around in a unpaid for car, sitting on an unpaid for couch and looking for all the world like a million bucks.