The Modern Housewife

Recently my auntie who was moving gave me, among other things an old book called "Here's a Hint" it was printed in the year I was born (1977 shhhh).  Its a book of hints for all parts of the house, easy way to do things, different homemade chemicals to use and ways to reuse things and save money. Yet again it reminded me of what a throwaway society we live in.  People buy disposable wipes, disposable nappies, disposable cleaning cloths, disposable containers for the kitchen, disposable wraps. Basically everything comes in a disposable version.  But do you know what....... we don't have to follow the norm and all the advertisements selling us another throwaway product.  Because although they may say they are disposable they are only disposable to us, not to the environment, hell half these throwaway products will still be hanging around the dump in 30 years time.  So not only do these products cost us more to buy but they are going to c...

I decided that I would start a diary, sorry to disappoint but it wont be on here.  I don't think you actually need to know how many loads of washing I did and if the kids took a poop or not.  I randomly decided to write a diary yesterday after I found an old book that I used to write poetry in.  Suffice to say there is plenty of room as I only used two pages with my creative writing. Where did this idea come from?  Sorry it wasn't in a bid to record my oh so exciting, jet setting lifestyle.  No, while I was at my parents place my mum pulled out and old diary she had written when I was young.  It wasn't feelings and grumps and fluffy dreams, it was what had happened in that day, what the weather was like, what us kids were doing, what happened on the farm, meetings etc.  I realised that it was actually quite useful, not only was it an interesting read 20 years later (yes I am that old and I was no baby when she wrote the diary either) it was...

Who would have thought that after a few months I would still be making bread on a 2 day basis.  NOT ME.  Granted we have had a bit of brought bread (still haven't used a whole loaf of brought bread since starting the challenge, it sits in the freezer for emergencies). I went away with the kids for a week and hubby was disturbed to find there was no homemade bread left for him, so he had a piece of brought bread only to find the taste so horrific that he called me to find out how to make bread himself.  I hate to say it but he did a dam good job, so good it made me try harder.  We now have two lovely puffy loafs of bread made every second day.  Just to give you a giggle each bread tray has two little balls of dough in them so when the bread rises it looks like someones bottom bursting out from under the teatowel.  If nothing else it makes me smile. Today after trying to find snacks for the kids in a house with not to much food left in it (grocery da...

Well I have officially given up on making Sour Dough Bread.  No reason or at least not one I wish to discuss. On a side note, if anyone would like to purchase a brick that has a pleasant sour smell to it, then please contact me.  It is very sturdy and I doubt very much that it will ever break.  Alas it is very heavy so if you wish to purchase it, it may pay to bring someone else with you for pick up, to avoid a back injury. As you were.....

Sour Dough kicked my butt once but I will be dammed if it beats me again!  So a few days ago I started small.  Using an old formula scoop I started out, leaving my mixture on the sunny windowsill in my kitchen. Day 1: One scoop flour, one scoop warm water (stir) Day 2: One scoop flour, one scoop warm water (stir) Day 3: Oops Day 4: Two scoops flour, two scoops warm water (stir) Day 5: Half a cup flour, half a cup warm water (stir) Day 6: I drained some of the liquid out that sat on the top then added a cup of flour and a cup of warm water (stir) Day 7: (Today) Since my mixture was bubbly and lovely and ever so slightly stinky (OK quite stinky but I didn't linger to take it all in), I decided to make me some BREAD. Playing it by ear I added 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp sugar and 2 cups of flour and realising it was too dry I added some warm water.  I proceeded to knead it for a bit and was surprised that this time it felt right.  So left it on the bench to ris...

Tomorrow is the day.... One month since I started out on my bread making mission.  I can confirm that I have yet to use brought bread and I have enough bread in the bread container to make it through tomorrow.  I am currently patting myself on the back Whoop Whoop.  Sorry little bit excited here, not often I follow through on something.  Thank you blogging world for pressuring me into finishing, the fear of posting my failure up here helped me make it through those difficult times.  I know I sound like I have conquered a nation or something but no, I just made bread for our family for one month. Although it has been hugely satisfying, at times it hasn't been easy.  There have been a few evenings when I have noticed my husband having unauthorised  bread (aka I didn't realise he was going to have a sami at night time and I only had just enough bread for breakie).  So I have had to start mixing and kneading away, letting the bread rise ov...

Three weeks have passed and still we have not touched the cheap back up bread located in my freezer.  Mew ha ha ha ha (insert evil laugh here).  I feel like some sort of superhuman hero.  I know, I know, its only bread but I think deep down inside my hunter gatherer needs are satisfied by being able to supply my family with something so basic all by myself (insert goofy smiley face here).  If you ever see me in the supermarket  you might think I am a little crazy.  Not only do I talk constantly to my kids, but whenever I go past the bread isle I have a crazy satisfied little smile on my face.  When I go past the nappy isle and don't have to buy any (due to using reusable apart from night time) it is just about too much for me to take lol. So I am on track to make my four weekly target.  It may be a little extra work, but seeing my kids munching down on fresh bread and totally loving it is enough to make it worth it.  Not to mentio...

Well it seems Sour Dough Bread is not fool proof, aka me proof.  I let it rise for 24 hours, ever the hopeful am I.  Yet my Sour Dough is just a hefty solid block of dough.  So hefty I wondered how to dispose of it...................... Didn't want to look all dodgy carrying a big black bag to the car and dumping it in a bin somewhere in an isolated park. I thought of the waste disposer, mmmmm nope it isn't that tough.   One blob of the Sour Dough brick and that disposer would be jammed up big time. "Compost heap", I said to myself, mmm maybe not, it is a growing thing that would mould up and be all smelly and gross.  Plus if some poor bird got hold of that it would loose its ability to fly instantly held back by the Sour Dough weighing down its little intestines. The only other option I had was the rubbish bin.  This worries me, as our bin is black heat seeking oven like contraption, that only gets picked up once every two weeks. ...

Ahhhhh I am not sure I can do this.  Uncle Fester (my pet name for my Sour Dough Starter) well, he STINKS, and not just a little bit but he is RANK. Ew ew ew ew ew suffice to say I think Uncle Fester is alive as they say when he stinks its all go. So I have started to make my first Sour Dough bread.  Have told Hubby that if we don't like it we are staying with yeast.  I have put a bit of starter with a cup of four and a cup of warm water for Unlce Fester to reproduce and make a Sponge (thats what they call the intial part of Sour Dough Bread making. Just went into the kitchen yucky Uncle Fester and his kids are stinking out this house.  So apparently Sour Dough Bread making is not for the faint hearted. To be continued......

Mmmmmm had what could be considered a dubious start to my Sour Dough making experience.  I forgot to feed it, it was only born yesterday and already I forgot to feed it, my bad.  Good thing my kids can tell me they are hungry otherwise there might be trouble.  On the bright side the dough is bubbly and is starting to smell a little nasty.  Just fed it and hope it will forgive me and grow grow grow. In case you are wondering I am using the following website for instructions to grow my little Sour Dough baby. http://www.bakesourdough.com/making_sourdough_starter

In continuation to my bread making mission, I am now trying to make my own Sour Dough starter.  Why you ask would you do that (well thats what I asked when I heard about it), well well well its CHEAP.  The only expensive part of making bread is buying yeast.  I figure if I am making bread each day then why not create my own little live starter instead of buying yeast. So this morning I put equal parts of flour and warm water in a container and left it in the nice warm sun to 'fester' OK thats not the proper word for it but it is growing its alive I tell you ALIVE.  Crazy much, why yes I am surprised you didn't realise already. I seem to be getting way to excited about this, I am thinking I may have been born in the wrong century.  I also think that if mixing flour and water gets me so excited I may want to try and get out more lol.  I don't know if other people get it, but making things from scratch is really satisfying.  Yes I could buy bread from...

For the last few months I have been making bread on a regular basis.  Well in the last week I have made a new mission for myself (and by no means is it mission impossible).  I aim to not buy any bread for the next month.  Now I have 2 loafs in the freezer 'just in case' but will try not to use that either.  So far I have made 2 weeks without using any brought bread.  That is saying something as I go through the bread.  We have it for breakfast, lunch and sometimes dinner. I am making bread from scratch, no bread maker or anything. I feel like such a domestic goddess. OK not so much of a goddess but very domestic. I have to say, I am loving it, it is so easy and not at all time consuming. I simply spend 5 mins getting the bread started in the morning, then let it rise, 5 more minutes spent with my bread at lunch time, then I leave it again till late afternoon to cook. OK I have some mishaps, yesterday it was a bit bigger than normal so I undercooked i...

This year has been a brilliant year for the garden and Hubby has worked extremely hard growing plants from seed, watering them, weeding them, putting compost on them and generally telling me of for trying to kill them.  All this hard work means that our Zucchini plant or should I say PLANTS, are producing big time.  To start with I thought he had planted three plants and even then I sighed to myself wondering what i was going to do with all those Zucchini's.  Well I just discovered it isn't three plants but more like ah FIVE, yes five.  We have found in the past that one plant does us fine producing a Zucchini every second day, which to be honest was all i could handle as I never really liked them.  These days I have 2 giant bulbus Zucchini's every day. We are at the point where Hubby doesn't have to ask if there is Zucchini in dinner, he just instinctively knows.  Its sort of like Forrest Gumps shrimps.  We have grilled Zucchini, roasted Zucc...

I was in central Wellington today, not a common occurance in my world as I don't really like it.  I had an appointment but also wanted to look for a certain book or set of books for my daughter.  They are Dora reading books that come in levels and encourage word recognition etc.  They are only thin books of about 10 pages each, I have seen them in Palmerston North for $4.50 each.  Well today I went to two city Whitcoulls, to find that the same books were $8.99 in one shop and $10.99 in another.  HELLO they are only 10 pages long and of average paper stock etc.  How can they justify the price tag of $10.99.  Esspecially when at the Whitcoulls online store you can get a 12 pack of these books for just $23 dollars. If you are wondering the reason I was looking in the shops is that I haven't seen many and I want to see what they are like before ordering them online, plus if they were as cheap or close I would have brought them instore.  I couldn't b...

And to be honest I feel totally lost.  I am the type of person that really gets into a book.  I get attached to the characters and feel like I actually know them.  I can visualise the scenery and can picture the character walking down that street.  So when I finish a book, especially a really good one, I miss it.  I miss racing down to my bedroom to sneak a few seconds, of quiet time, with the people I feel like I know and the place that I have been enchanted by.  I suppose at this point I should tell you the name of the book so you can be equally enchanted.  It is written by Rosie Thomas and called Iris and Ruby.  Set in Cairo both in the second world war and today.  It is a moving story of mothers daughters  and the power of memory. I often get attached to Characters and places in books.  I remember when I read Gone with the Wind, it is probably the longest book I have ever read so I was quite proud of myself.  It...