Along with a very good friend of mine, I will be teaching a weekend course at Woodbrooke Quaker College called Life Artistry.
It is the being held on the extra long Jubilee bank holiday weekend, starting Friday night and finishing Monday afternoon.
Details can be found here:.
The description doesn't really do what happens on the course justice. Over the course of the weekend, Wendrie and I teach you a bunch of techniques and help you to build your own journal. We show you how to use different triggers to help you journal the spiritual and mundane in your life. A journal doesn't have to be all words. It can be completely visual. All we do is give you the tools to help you start and develop your own journal.
There are plenty of gaps in the programme that allow you to retreat and reflect on what you're doing, allowing you to develop and piece of artwork that encompasses you.
If you'd like to do this course, there are currently 10 places left. The facilities at Woodbrooke are very good and the grounds are stunning. Being the beginning of June, the weather should be incredible.
Any questions, please just comment and I'll get back to you.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
2 March 2012
Studio Organisation - Preview
In a couple of days, I'll be offering a free "workshop" here on my blog. You see, I need to get my studio organised and have promised I'll share the challenge with my friends on the AllThingsTim-Euro Yahoo Group. You don't have to be a member of that group to participate, but we'll be sharing photos and ideas through that group. To sign up, you need to be a member of AllThingsTim first, then apply to the AllThingsTim-Euro group once you've been approved on the first group.
However, I will be posting all the videos, photos and files that I create here on my blog. You can put comments up and link back to your photos and share that way too. I'm also pinning all sorts of organisation inspiration on my Pinterest board as I find them. Please feel free to follow me.
In the meantime, here's a tour of my studio as it currently looks. Maybe now you'll understand why I need to do this workshop. It's as much to benefit me as anyone else!
However, I will be posting all the videos, photos and files that I create here on my blog. You can put comments up and link back to your photos and share that way too. I'm also pinning all sorts of organisation inspiration on my Pinterest board as I find them. Please feel free to follow me.
In the meantime, here's a tour of my studio as it currently looks. Maybe now you'll understand why I need to do this workshop. It's as much to benefit me as anyone else!
23 January 2012
The Cheap Domestic Goddess
For the second instalment in my Austerity cooking, I thought I'd share my Cheat's Cannelloni.
If you've had a hard week and it's only Monday, don't bust yourself up about not making the red sauce from scratch. Just use about 1.5 jars of the pasta sauce of your choice and some passata, but be aware that the cost will be higher.
You will need:
2 Large saucepans
Lasagne dish or roasting tin
Mixing bowl
Ingredients for the red sauce:
4-6 medium onions
2-3 red peppers (capsicum)
2 cans chopped tomatoes
1 large jar passata
Crushed dried chillies (leave out or moderate if serving to kids)
1/2 tube tomato purée
Balsamic vinegar
Worcestershire sauce (optional if you're catering for vegetarians)
2 tsp sugar
Splash soya sauce
For the cannelloni:
8-12 lasagne sheets
500g Ricotta
500g Baby Leaf Spinach
Cracked black pepper
Mint (can be left out)
2 cups grated cheese (the stronger the better)
Method (red sauce)
Dice the onions finely and place in large saucepan in oil and cook until translucent.
Dice the red peppers finely and add to the onion
Add the chopped tomatoes
Add the passata and the purée and stir thoroughly
Add a splash of balsamic vinegar, Worcestershire sauce and soya sauce and the sugar. Stir thoroughly and taste. Add more of the sauces if needed.
At the last minute, add about 2 tsp crushed dried chillies
Leave to simmer for about 1/2 and hour stirring occasionally until the flavours have combined.
This is usually enough red sauce that I can make the cannelloni dish, a lasagne and at least one other pasta dish during the week. If you divide it into portions, it freezes well, making other meals easy. Add some kidney beans and some chilli powder, with a bit of mince and you have an easy chilli.
Method (cannelloni):
in the large saucepan, boil some water and add a slosh of oil. Add the lasagne sheets to the boiling water one at a time. Keep the water moving around the sheets until they are soft and pliable. This takes anywhere from 2-5 minutes. Remove the sheets one at a time and place them on a non-stick baking sheet or similar to cook.
Once you've thrown the pasta water away, wilt the spinach down for about a minute - just enough that most of the leaves have lost their shape.
In the mixing bowl, add the Ricotta, spinach, mint (if using) and cracked black pepper and mix until thoroughly combined.
In turn, lay a lasagne sheet out lengthways and spoon about two tablespoons of mixture onto it. Spread from the end of the sheet closest to you up to about 1/3 from the other end.
Starting at the end closest to you, roll the sheet up like a roulade.
Complete the remaining lasagne sheets until all the mixture is used up (this allows you to add or subtract mixture from completed sheets as needed).
The Construction:
Spoon enough red sauce onto the base of the lasagne dish to cover the bottom.
Lay the lasagne rolls in the red sauce
Spoon more red sauce over the top of the rolls.
Sprinkle dried chillies over the top
Sprinkle grated cheese over the top
Dust with dried oregano or Italian seasoning
Bake at 200°C until cheese is golden
Serve it with crusty bread and a robust salad or on its own.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
If you've had a hard week and it's only Monday, don't bust yourself up about not making the red sauce from scratch. Just use about 1.5 jars of the pasta sauce of your choice and some passata, but be aware that the cost will be higher.
You will need:
2 Large saucepans
Lasagne dish or roasting tin
Mixing bowl
Ingredients for the red sauce:
4-6 medium onions
2-3 red peppers (capsicum)
2 cans chopped tomatoes
1 large jar passata
Crushed dried chillies (leave out or moderate if serving to kids)
1/2 tube tomato purée
Balsamic vinegar
Worcestershire sauce (optional if you're catering for vegetarians)
2 tsp sugar
Splash soya sauce
For the cannelloni:
8-12 lasagne sheets
500g Ricotta
500g Baby Leaf Spinach
Cracked black pepper
Mint (can be left out)
2 cups grated cheese (the stronger the better)
Method (red sauce)
Dice the onions finely and place in large saucepan in oil and cook until translucent.
Dice the red peppers finely and add to the onion
Add the chopped tomatoes
Add the passata and the purée and stir thoroughly
Add a splash of balsamic vinegar, Worcestershire sauce and soya sauce and the sugar. Stir thoroughly and taste. Add more of the sauces if needed.
At the last minute, add about 2 tsp crushed dried chillies
Leave to simmer for about 1/2 and hour stirring occasionally until the flavours have combined.
This is usually enough red sauce that I can make the cannelloni dish, a lasagne and at least one other pasta dish during the week. If you divide it into portions, it freezes well, making other meals easy. Add some kidney beans and some chilli powder, with a bit of mince and you have an easy chilli.
Method (cannelloni):
in the large saucepan, boil some water and add a slosh of oil. Add the lasagne sheets to the boiling water one at a time. Keep the water moving around the sheets until they are soft and pliable. This takes anywhere from 2-5 minutes. Remove the sheets one at a time and place them on a non-stick baking sheet or similar to cook.
Once you've thrown the pasta water away, wilt the spinach down for about a minute - just enough that most of the leaves have lost their shape.
In the mixing bowl, add the Ricotta, spinach, mint (if using) and cracked black pepper and mix until thoroughly combined.
In turn, lay a lasagne sheet out lengthways and spoon about two tablespoons of mixture onto it. Spread from the end of the sheet closest to you up to about 1/3 from the other end.
Starting at the end closest to you, roll the sheet up like a roulade.
Complete the remaining lasagne sheets until all the mixture is used up (this allows you to add or subtract mixture from completed sheets as needed).
The Construction:
Spoon enough red sauce onto the base of the lasagne dish to cover the bottom.
Lay the lasagne rolls in the red sauce
Spoon more red sauce over the top of the rolls.
Sprinkle dried chillies over the top
Sprinkle grated cheese over the top
Dust with dried oregano or Italian seasoning
Bake at 200°C until cheese is golden
Serve it with crusty bread and a robust salad or on its own.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
13 January 2012
The Cheap Domestic Goddess
Since G was born, my life has changed drastically - just as I expected it to before some of you start screaming "I told you so"! I've become a bit of a domestic goddess, in a small way. Finally, 22 years beyond my graduation, I no longer live like a student, washing a dish as I run out.
But with the cost of living skyrocketing, I have to find imaginative ways of cooking interesting things for G that we are prepared to eat too, so that I'm not cooking twice and that if she decides she doesn't like it, I don't end up throwing it away. I'm also finding ways of hiding vegetables into things - not because she doesn't like vegetables, because she does as long as they're cooked into it, but because as she gets older, we like to be out and about and it's useful to be able to take a healthy lunch with us. Just read the nutritional value of a McDonalds Happy Meal, and you'll never buy one for your kids again!
So, as I've been cooking tonight, I'll share with you my Austerity Sausage Rolls.
Ingredients:
1 pack pre-rolled puff pastry, because life is too short to make puff pastry
500g diced casserole beef - I buy the Basic stuff
2 medium onions
2 or 3 small carrots
Ground black pepper
Italian seasoning, or herbs of your choice
2 large eggs
I have a food processor to do most of my cooking. Again, life is too short to cut up everything as small as it needs to be as far as I am concerned, but you can cut it up by hand if you wish. You can also use a blender, but work in tiny quantities because you want things chopped, not puréed.
Method:
1. Peel the onions and carrots. Using the knife blade in the processor, blitz until finely chopped.
2. Transfer into a mixing bowl and do the same with the carrots and put them in the same bowl as the onions.
3. Set the processor going and drop about half of the beef into the bowl until it is finely minced. Put into the bowl with the onions and carrots and repeat for the other half of the meat. Add it to the bowl when done.
4. Break one egg into the bowl and add the black pepper and herbs. Mix thoroughly.
5. Break the other egg into a mug and beat well.
6. Cut the sheet of pastry in half and set aside. Dust your bench with a little flour and roll the pastry out to about 18x18cm, and cut in half. Repeat for the other half.
7. Take one strip of pastry and visually divide into three sections lengthwise.
8. Scoop 1/4 of the filling out of the bowl bit by bit and lay it down the centre third of the strip.
9. Paint one of the side strips with the beaten egg.
10. Roll the other side of the pastry over the mixture and continue to rollit over the egg washed third so you have a roll.
11. Paint the beaten egg along the top of the sausage roll.
12. Prick the length of the sausage roll with a fork and cut into 6.
13. Repeat for the remaining strips.
14. Place on a greased baking sheet (or use a non-stick baking sheet) and cook at 180°c for 25-30 minutes until the top of the pastry is golden brown.
15. Once cooked, place sausage rolls on a wire rack to cool.
There are a variety of other fillings that you can play with:
Pork shoulder with onion, sage, celery, and peppers
Chicken thighs with tarragon, onion, celery, peppers and mushrooms
Turkey with chicken livers, onions, chestnuts and maybe a little cranberry sauce
And for the vegetarians: Butternut squash, potatoes, onions, carrots, peppers and rosemary, with breadcrumbs (roast the squash and potatoes rather than chopping finely).
Basically, a good filling requires a central ingredient that has enough fat to cope with the mincing process. If it doesn't, the finished roll will taste incredibly dry. Cheaper cuts are better for this as they are usually higher in fat than the better cuts. I had to add butter to the turkey filling, but any fat would have done the job and I had to remove the skin from the chicken for the chicken filling as it just goes stringy rather than mincing.
Secondly, too much raw vegetable will make the filling too liquid when it cooks and the rolls will collapse. For a meat sausage roll, a 60/40 ratio works best. For a vegetable roll, mix in a largish quantity of breadcrumbs so that they absorb that liquid during cooking.
And G's verdict "I love Mummy's sausage rolls". That's enough.
But with the cost of living skyrocketing, I have to find imaginative ways of cooking interesting things for G that we are prepared to eat too, so that I'm not cooking twice and that if she decides she doesn't like it, I don't end up throwing it away. I'm also finding ways of hiding vegetables into things - not because she doesn't like vegetables, because she does as long as they're cooked into it, but because as she gets older, we like to be out and about and it's useful to be able to take a healthy lunch with us. Just read the nutritional value of a McDonalds Happy Meal, and you'll never buy one for your kids again!
So, as I've been cooking tonight, I'll share with you my Austerity Sausage Rolls.
Ingredients:
1 pack pre-rolled puff pastry, because life is too short to make puff pastry
500g diced casserole beef - I buy the Basic stuff
2 medium onions
2 or 3 small carrots
Ground black pepper
Italian seasoning, or herbs of your choice
2 large eggs
I have a food processor to do most of my cooking. Again, life is too short to cut up everything as small as it needs to be as far as I am concerned, but you can cut it up by hand if you wish. You can also use a blender, but work in tiny quantities because you want things chopped, not puréed.
Method:
1. Peel the onions and carrots. Using the knife blade in the processor, blitz until finely chopped.
2. Transfer into a mixing bowl and do the same with the carrots and put them in the same bowl as the onions.
3. Set the processor going and drop about half of the beef into the bowl until it is finely minced. Put into the bowl with the onions and carrots and repeat for the other half of the meat. Add it to the bowl when done.
4. Break one egg into the bowl and add the black pepper and herbs. Mix thoroughly.
5. Break the other egg into a mug and beat well.
6. Cut the sheet of pastry in half and set aside. Dust your bench with a little flour and roll the pastry out to about 18x18cm, and cut in half. Repeat for the other half.
7. Take one strip of pastry and visually divide into three sections lengthwise.
8. Scoop 1/4 of the filling out of the bowl bit by bit and lay it down the centre third of the strip.
9. Paint one of the side strips with the beaten egg.
10. Roll the other side of the pastry over the mixture and continue to rollit over the egg washed third so you have a roll.
11. Paint the beaten egg along the top of the sausage roll.
12. Prick the length of the sausage roll with a fork and cut into 6.
13. Repeat for the remaining strips.
14. Place on a greased baking sheet (or use a non-stick baking sheet) and cook at 180°c for 25-30 minutes until the top of the pastry is golden brown.
15. Once cooked, place sausage rolls on a wire rack to cool.
There are a variety of other fillings that you can play with:
Pork shoulder with onion, sage, celery, and peppers
Chicken thighs with tarragon, onion, celery, peppers and mushrooms
Turkey with chicken livers, onions, chestnuts and maybe a little cranberry sauce
And for the vegetarians: Butternut squash, potatoes, onions, carrots, peppers and rosemary, with breadcrumbs (roast the squash and potatoes rather than chopping finely).
Basically, a good filling requires a central ingredient that has enough fat to cope with the mincing process. If it doesn't, the finished roll will taste incredibly dry. Cheaper cuts are better for this as they are usually higher in fat than the better cuts. I had to add butter to the turkey filling, but any fat would have done the job and I had to remove the skin from the chicken for the chicken filling as it just goes stringy rather than mincing.
Secondly, too much raw vegetable will make the filling too liquid when it cooks and the rolls will collapse. For a meat sausage roll, a 60/40 ratio works best. For a vegetable roll, mix in a largish quantity of breadcrumbs so that they absorb that liquid during cooking.
And G's verdict "I love Mummy's sausage rolls". That's enough.
18 April 2011
How Time Flies…
G is now 15 months old. Four teeth and more hair. She is crawling everywhere and pushing boundaries to see what she is capable of/can get away with.
This is my current favourite photo, but I've been looking back through all her photos and she has changed so much!
3 August 2010
Anniversary
Today is the first anniversary of my wonderful Dad's death. I miss him terribly and it makes living so far away that much harder.
But I can't let that anniversary be the only thing that will mark this day for the rest of my life because that would be not what he would want. For example, the 3rd of August is my best friends birthday and she is a vibrant, wonderful, strong woman who is very much alive. Happy Birthday Sharshi!
Additionally, each day brings new things for me to discover with my new daughter who will be seven months old at the end of this week. Days are so full of her that I don't get a chance to dwell on other things. The lovely thing about babies is they force you to live in the here and now because that is the way they live.
So, Dad. You're missed. Terribly. But I hope you won't mind if I stop missing you to change your granddaughter's nappy.
But I can't let that anniversary be the only thing that will mark this day for the rest of my life because that would be not what he would want. For example, the 3rd of August is my best friends birthday and she is a vibrant, wonderful, strong woman who is very much alive. Happy Birthday Sharshi!
Additionally, each day brings new things for me to discover with my new daughter who will be seven months old at the end of this week. Days are so full of her that I don't get a chance to dwell on other things. The lovely thing about babies is they force you to live in the here and now because that is the way they live.
So, Dad. You're missed. Terribly. But I hope you won't mind if I stop missing you to change your granddaughter's nappy.
29 July 2010
Preoccupation
Some of you may have been wondering what has happened to me. Well, Genevieve did. I'll post more at another time but here is the new addition in my life.
23 June 2009
The joys of coming home
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This is the photo of an Australian citizen. I thought that when I came home to Australia, that setting myself back up in the country of my birth (and where I have lived for the majority of my life), would be a relatively easy thing to do.How wrong I am.
The healthcare system in Australia is a subsidised affair called Medicare. Every citizen is entitled to Medicare. However, if you're a returning citizen there are certain criteria you need to meet to be able to apply. Firstly, they want proof that you are permanently back in Australia - which, effectively I am for the immediate future. So, they want proof of bill of sale of your house in the country you've left or proof that you've closed your foreign bank accounts. Or, they want a rental agreement/bill of purchase on a house in Australia or utility bills or an Australian bank account. Since I have not sold my UK house, closed my bank account, rented/bought a house in Australia, I don't have any of that information. But hey, I have my Australian passport, birth certificate and marriage certificate so if I get the Australian bank account, it should be easy.
Hah!
I applied for an Australian bank account today. No problem. The passport and certificates are enough for me to open the bank account, but they need proof of address in order for me to be able to withdraw from the account. So, the helpful guy at the bank suggested that I apply for an Australian Tax File Number - apparently you can do it online. You can. But not if you're Australian. For some strange reason only known to the Australian Goverment, Australians have to go down to their nearest post office, obtain the correct form, fill it in and post it to the tax office.
The annoying thing about all of this is that the purpose of this is for me to get healthcare while I'm here. If I had come into Australia on my UK passport with a visitor's visa I could have got Medicare assistance without any issue - apply online and everything. Easy. But not if I'm Australian.
Another thing: I've come back to Australia to look after my elderly parents while my father deals with terminal Leukaemia. I cannot work while I'm here because they need my help too much. We've heard about so many people who've obtained help from the government for various things and my family has never needed to ask for help so we're new to this whole system. Because I'm Australian, with a possible exception, I may have to wait until I've been back here two years before I can apply for any allowances. I'm not intending to be here two years, so we'll have to see what happens.
It's just so frustrating to have to go through this: Applying for allowances will be easier if I have Medicare, can't apply for Medicare until I have a bank account. Can't apply for a bank account until I have a Tax Office Number (or ironically, Medicare).
Round and round and round we go...
29 May 2009
Goodbye R496 URD
I sold my car today. It has been an integral part of my life for the last 11 years and it seems strange to not have a car, even if this is only going to be for a short while. It is so integral, that I cannot find any photos of it to post here. (but thank you to my friend, Missus Wookie for finding one). It's funny how you use something every day for so long, but when you go back to look, there's no other record of it's existence other than out-of-date paperwork in your filing cabinet.This car was my first company car when I joined Conchango back in 1998. There were four Golf GTIs ordered for new staff and VW were just about to releast the Mark 4 and didn't have any in stock, so they recalled one from each of four other right-hand drive vehicle countries so that we could have them. I believe mine was the New Zealand version - air con and a sun roof. Someone got the South African one - no sun roof, but air con so good you could have stored your beef next to it. There was also an Australian one - air con, no sun roof - and a Japanese one - air con, no sun roof, a great stereo system as standard.
If all four of us turned up to a company do, there'd be R495 URD, R496 URD, R497 URD and R498 URD all parked next to each other. Mine was the only purple one so I never tried to drive one of the others away by mistake after a company do.
I'll miss the car. It's been good to me. The guy I sold it to said that the clutch was going and the gearbox was making a funny noise. The clutch hasn't changed in 10 years and the gearbox makes the same noise it's always made, so I guess it just proves that Golfs are the reliable cars that every one says they are. Their reputation is intact.
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