An overload of cuteness!

A female bunny we adopted ended up unexpectedly having a litter of bunnies. Turns out she was already pregnant when she arrived here, but showed absolutely no signs of pregnancy until they were born. The mother is such a patient, gentle doe, and her daughter (pictured) is very much the same. I couldn't resist taking a photo of her when she was little - fast asleep and content on the piano. She was about 2 weeks old here.

February Challenge - Toilet paper

This month's challenge is to store at least 2 weeks worth of toilet paper. In an emergency situation, this is not something I particularly want to go without. An unused roll can double up as tissues, paper towels and I have even heard of people using clean toilet paper rolls (with the paper on of course) to apply pressure to wounds to stem bleeding - I guess that was all they had available.

There are some alternatives. I've heard of "wee wipes" (instead of using toilet paper for 'number 1's', you use small square cloths made from terry toweling or other spare soft cloth you have around). I'm not game enough for those, and the emergency situations I'm thinking off - I'm not quite sure if I'd have the water spare to wash them. Bit of a delicate situation, isn't it!

If you already have two weeks worth, perhaps challenge yourself further and, if you have the space, store 4 weeks worth.

Perhaps also think (not for very long through - lol) about how your family would manage if you weren't able to use your toilets. Emergency situations for toilet happenings don't always need to be in the form of a big natural disaster. We had tree roots get into our pipes on the nature strip resulting in us not being able to flush the toilet for a few days. That wasn't so bad for us, but the plumber advised me there are worse scenarios where sewer water has backed up and overflowed in the bathrooms. Eek!

If you do a lot of camping, you may have a camping toilet. Perhaps you have some cheap 'almost disposable' buckets that could be used as chamber pots at a time of need.

Okay, enough grossness for one day ;D Time to water the garden before my 'eating plants' shrivel up.

Week 5 of the 2011 Food Storage Challenge

Week 5 $10 challenge

2 can tomato soup, 2 kg powdered milk

Week 5 $20 challenge

4 cans tomato soup, 4 kg powdered milk

Soup

So why are we storing more soup? Soup is versatile when it comes to food storage. It doesn't take much to prepare (make sure you store extra water), you can add other things to it such as pasta, vegetables, meat, fish etc. Of course, if you don't like tomato soup, store another type of soup. You could even store pasta sauce. I like to store tomato paste instead. You can get little tins of tomato paste from Aldi quite cheaply.

Powdered Milk

Powdered milk isn't particularly pleasant on its own, but in an emergency situation, is a great source of calcium. I have posted some ways to use powdered milk previously on my blog here: http://denleydiaries.blogspot.com/2009/03/what-to-do-with-powdered-milk.html. You can disguise the taste by adding drinking chocolate or Milo or any other flavour. My bread maker recipes call for powdered milk, so I always have some in my pantry cupboard.

If you don't wish to store so much powdered milk, store alternatives such as evaporated milk, coconut milk, even sweetened condensed milk (probably not for drinking though). There are alternatives out there such as rice milk as well.

A Cookbook for Kids

I work as a music teacher, and from 3:30pm it is mayhem at my place. Well, perhaps not mayhem as my kids are generally in a routine, but I work all the way until 7pm so I really need to sort out dinner during the day.

I enlisted the help of my son. It takes a little bit of time and patience to teach kids to learn how to cook, and there's no way I feel we're even getting close here, but I have taught my son some kitchen skills, and wrote him out his own cook book. I try once a week to let him cook dinner (or finish it off, as is sometimes the case). The recipes are very simple, some adult preparation may be needed beforehand, and anytime something needs to be baked, it is put into a cold oven, then the oven is switched on once the door is closed.

Some of the dishes are not main meals in themselves (one is a cake!) and often require side dishes of vegetables or salad, but they are a confidence booster and a welcome relief when it comes to dinner time.

Unfortunately these blog sites don't allow for PDF documents, otherwise I would happily upload the entire book.

PETE Rice Storage

I bought a big 10kg bag of Calrose Rice cheaply, and thought I would break it down into a more usable storage size. I have decantered some into jars to keep in my pantry for shorter term storage, but for longer term (up to 5 years), I wanted to store some in PETE bottles.

I chose some former 2 litre juice bottles, bleach rinsed them, dried them and they were ready to fill.

I use a funnel to tip the rice into the PETE bottles. It means fewer grains of rice on the benchtop.

I put in two oxygen absorbers in the bottom of the bottle, as I'm not sure how old my oxygen absorbers actually are.

Fill all the way up to the top of the bottle.

I added a third oxygen absorber at the top. Put the lid on and seal it with some flexible duct tape. This will avoid the bottle being accidentally opened, or any unwanted oxygen seeping in.

Don't forget to label your bottle.

Oxygen absorbers supposedly have a shelf life of 1 year. Of course, once they have done their job there is no need to open your containers and add more. However, if you do need to re-seal your food for any reason, you will need to use new oxygen absorbers. Throw out the used ones.

You can tell the oxygen absorbers work if you are using e.g. 1.25 litre lemonade PETE bottles as the side pulls in. It won't pull in as much with the thicker plastic used for juice bottles.

Charcoal's History

I've had pet rabbits for a long time now, and none of them have been pet shop purchased. The first was a dwarf female named 'Barney'. She was given to my sister's friend by her boyfriend (without consulting her). The friend's parents didn't want a rabbit so my family was asked if we wanted it. She ended up becoming my pet. She was a grumpy thing - grunted, used to run at us, nip our fingers but lick us all over when she realised who we were. She was albino, and they don't see very well. My parents thought it was cruel for her to live in a cage, so they made a 'playpen' in the yard for her, with chicken wire everywhere so she couldn't escape. Sadly, a Tom Cat found his way in and attacked her. She bit his ear off, however received a nasty scratch on her eye and died the next day from shock. She was probably a year old.

The next furry friend was Charcoal. He somehow found his way into my parents back yard and refused to leave. He was so young he had one ear up and one ear down. Quite a comical look for a bunny! At that point he was completely white in colour except for a tiny splodge of grey right on the top of his head, so I named him 'Charcoal'. Not, as my husband thinks, so we could BBQ him!

He was such a beautiful natured bunny, my parents didn't want another cat to get to him, so they asked if I wanted him at my place. He was so adorable and Phil didn't mind so to my place it was!

It has been just over 11 years since then, and he is still a remarkable creature. He is so gentle with my kids, has a very sweet tooth (can smell chocolate a mile away), and somehow managed to get my husband wrapped around his...little front claw?

He has been through a lot through, poor old guy. He has had toddlers trying to sit on him, brushing his fur up the wrong way, endless wet sloppy kisses, being trodden on, people unintentionally poisoning him by feeding him toxic plants (oleander is just as poisonous to bunnies as it is to humans) and having to share his hutch with other bunnies we have rescued.

Despite being taken to the vet to be desexed at 6 months, he still managed to sire a litter with one of my rescued females (oops!).

He is very loved though, and I suspect he knows that :D

Australia Day - Damper

How more Australian can you get than having Damper on Australia Day? (and a BBQ and swim in the pool in the sweltering sun).

I taught my son how to make damper, with a little help from my Thermomix.

The Australian Women's Weekly gives this history of Damper:-

In the early colonial days of Australia, there was no yeast, and the first
settlers lacked the knowledge to make a substitute, so they made damper; an
unleavened bread cooked in the ashes of a camp fire or open fireplace.
Traditionally, damper consists of flour an water and a good pinch of salt.

My recipe has been altered a little to make it a little more palatable and has butter and milk. You could add salt as well if you wish, but I use salted butter therefore don't see the need for extra salt.

Ingredients:

3 cups self-raising flour
30 grams butter
1/2 cup milk
1 cup water (approximately)

Method:
Rub butter into flour to resemble breadcrumbs.

Make well in centre of flour, add milk and enough water to make a soft, sticky dough. Use a butter knife to mix for best results.

Knead the dough on a lightly floured surface until smooth. Shape into a mound.

Place on greased (or baking paper-lined) oven tray. Cut a cross through the dough about 1 cm deep. Brush with a little extra milk or water, then dust with a little extra flour.

Bake in a moderately hot oven for 20-30 minutes or until damper sounds hollow when tapped.

Break open and serve with golden syrup, honey, butter or jam.