How to stop lettuce from spoiling
Have you bought lettuce only to find it weeks later in the back of the fridge in a limp mess? Did it sweat into slimy oblivion in the plastic wrap it was purchased in, or self combust through neglect? A…
Category: MY KITCHEN
Orange Vinegar DIY Household Cleaner
Keep those orange peels! After enjoying fresh juice and baking ’til your heart’s content, don’t be in a hurry to throw away the skin. Have you ever wondered about what hidden toxins may be lurking in your regular household cleaners?…
Homemade Cultured Buttermilk
Buttermilk is not a common recipe ingredient but, from time to time, you’ll stumble on a recipe that requires it. It is so easy to make, you’ll wonder why you haven’t been doing it for years. Originally, buttermilk was the…
Preserving using the Water Bathing Method
I go back to basics and rediscover the water bathing method of preserving, just like grandma used to. While I have covered lots of old and modern ways to sterilise jars before starting the preserving process, I hadn’t yet tried…
How to Sterilise Preserving Jars & Bottles
Good hygiene and trusted preserving methods are essential for long-life, shelf-stable preserves that will last for months in your pantry. Several generations ago our great-grandmothers (great-great even, you get the picture) would most probably have used ‘a copper’ (a large…
A bucketful of plums: how to freeze them
Just how do you make the most of an abundant plum harvest? My plum tree is rather special. It has been grafted with several varieties. Exactly what varieties, I am not completely sure! Showing signs of bearing Christmas Plums however…
1939 Cooking Lessons: being resourceful
I’ve had more than a passing interesting the concept of ‘waste not, want not’, which was a saying my grandmother had. Being born in the early 1900’s, she lived through two world wars and experienced first hand how feeding a…
Water: H2 Ohhh
There have been a few ‘water incidents’ in the past few weeks that got me thinking about the H2O we take for granted. Our hearts went out to the poor Hawkes Bay who suffered a monumental hammering with E.coli in…
Preserving Fresh Herbs: Rosemary & Parsley
A slight ‘segway’ from my current project, my very own veggie garden makeover, today saw me (a) trimming my rosemary ‘tree’ into an orderly bush and (b) rediscovering my parsley plant under a season of rouge weeds. This left me…
Love Food Hate Waste: the campaign begins
The statement couldn’t be any clearer. There’s a campaign in New Zealand to help raise awareness of the amount of food Kiwis waste each year and how we can do something about it. Listen up: Or read up: The stats…