april, oh my.

Another week has flown by, as weeks tend to.
The year will be over before we know it, which is happy - which is sad.

So, in no particular order, the past 7 days have held for me -

- A dear, old friend's birthday, I borrowed a bottle of wine from work & let myself relax on the balcony with people I hadn't seen for so long, people who are my adopted family.

- I listened to one of my favourite people cry her heart out over the phone.
-I drank too much bourbon in the middle of the bush, I felt ill & forgot to make the mulled wine I had planned.
- I sent my sister a PXT of the chocolate I was eating. I miss her. She lives across the country now.
- I fell off the healthy eating horse. Still searching for the elusive stallion.
- The poms left us.
- I cuddled a big baby while I walked around his mama's house, he is finally getting to know me & yet his family is moving on soon from this small town, too.

I am making plans.
I feel like the world is too big, too small, not enough time to do all I want to do,
all I want to see, all I want to be.

But if this time next year, I am under the stars with my puppy girl & my lover boy, living out of the back of his old Landcruiser, red sand between my toes & a smile on my face, then everything will have gone exactly to plan. Follow that up with a trip to the mountains, to see them covered with snow & see old friends. Happy.

Here is my life in some small, grainy images:

my breakfast today - it was supposed to be ricotta pancakes, but it turned into a strange scramble. I ate it with bananas & berries, & local vanilla bean creamy yoghurt.

I made this cake to take to my old friend's birthday roast, some people liked it & some people didn't.I clearly didn't plan the flavours too well, there is a peanut butter & cacao layer, an avocado & mint layer, a banana coconut layer & a berry layer. It was a mixture of strange & delicious. & mostly raw mostly vegan.

first fire of the cold season. Puppy curled up in front & wouldn't move.

x

a rainy weekend

It has been a drizzly end to the week here in Bairnsdale.
I have also been getting mighty excited about nutrition, exercise, health, & especially raw & vegan diets. I'm already generally pretty picky about what meat I eat - I don't like to support factory farming or land clearing or any kind of cruelty. I don't like to put overly processed food into my body.

YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT.

Or so they say!

So it has been a fulfilling week of food shopping, & cooking, & baking, & continuing to endeavor to make my own or at least make smarter choices. Of course, I don't commit to all of my ideals ALL of the time. That's life. Sometimes there's a lot going on. But when I can - I do.

THURSDAY:

 We have a bread maker - I'm not so crash-hot at using it, that's generally Ryan's nighttime domain so we can awake to fresh bread baking. So when I got a hankerin' for some hot, fresh bread, I made my own in the oven. Out of BEER! BEER BREAD! Amazing. 

That's the picture at the top. If it's not slathered in real butter, it's not worth it.

FRIDAY:

This is an energy slice I made for snack times. Each serve has roughly 240 calories, for those of you playing at home,  and it's made of delicious raw foods to give you energy and make you feel great.

I did make this recipe up, and I did cheat on the vegan here. I used butter to help it all stick together, because I had no dates. I could have used dates.

SO:

1/2 cup goji berries

1/2 cup sesame seed

1/2 cup almonds 

1/2 cup coconut

1/2 cup pepitas

1/2 cup puffed rice

1/2 cup butter

1/4 cup agave syrup

Blend blend blend, mush together & press into a slice tin! Easy

And it's very delicious. Quite sweet though, even for the most-sweet living person ever, me.

You could leave out the agave syrup & butter, use dates instead.

YOU COULD MAKE IT HOWEVER YOU LIKE!

 

SATURDAY:

We woke up slowly, happy it was raining lightly, happy we had nothing to do except continue to try & get the house in order. I got wind of a farmer's market in Metung so decided it would be fun, we packed backpacks & set off to the lake-side in search of cider.

To tide puppy over, we gifted her a bone to play with in our absence. She pulled a really beautiful face I couldn't resist snapping.

 

 Alex & Sam (the poms) make life look like a catalogue for sneakers or something. So photogenic.

We got our hands on some cider, from Mt Markey Brewery in Casilis. We also got some honey & fruit mead, & some beer. Then some pumpkin bread from the bakery, to have with feta & basil dip. 

Delicious. Alex also had bought some hedgehog & yoyos which she whipped out for an impromtu dessert.

We took turns flicking the fishing rod into the lake from the sand, no luck today.

The drizzle got heavier & the sun couldn't quite make it through the haze, so we all huddle under a tree to watch the birds swim & talk nonsense. 

It could only last so long though before the thought of boxes that need sorting got to me - so we headed back home to do some cleaning.

I found an amazing blog that evening, with raw vegan recipes aplently. 

I modified some of the common ingredients to make us a frozen dessert of fruits & nuts.

(Lucky Ryan had realised how much we needed warm food on a night like it was as well, so he made us slow-cooked venison shanks with veggies. Yummo!)

This is a completely vegan (except the chocolate drizzle on top, you can;t get cacao here at 8pm on a Saturday evening) ice cream cake!

The top layer is frozen berries with a bit of almond meal.

The middle layer is frozen banana, coconut cream, & vanilla.

The bottom is dates, walnuts, sesame seeds & agave syrup.

The best part is, it's not ice cream, and it's not cake, so I can have it anytime!
Like breakfast!

I am also crocheting Ryan a beanie.

x

toilet trials - a pictorial review

Discussion has arisen in our tiny cottage around the subject of hygine and bathrooms, & how they relate to our constant goal of self-sustainability & general earth-kindness. 

Nearly everything used in the bathroom - from toothbrushes to shampoo to toilet paper - is disposable, & most generally full of unpronounceable chemicals.  I don't love lathering myself up with words longer than my life, don't love throwing out the vast majority of what gets used on a day-today basis in the bathroom.

So - reusable toilet cloths!

Before you get all grossed out one me, tell me what you think about cloth nappies? Hopefully you are nodding your head now in agreement; "That's RIGHT Jessee, you do make a clear & concise point! There is no difference!" If not, let me fill you in on a few of the finer details.

I made these pretty little squares of sustainability out of flannelette, which is 100% cotton & Australian. (This particular pattern is actually designed by RMIT students looking for more earthy designs in material. Thanks guys! I would have felt a bit weird using cartoon images of trucks as my personal toilet cloth.)

We stack them on the toilet-top, ready for use whenever we are, and afterwards they can be put into the little bin next to the toilet, which is half-full with water, a bit of vinegar, & a bit of liquid laundry wash we buy in bulk from the local wholefoods store. When I am doing a load of washing I just pour the entire contents of the bin in as well, voila! 

BUT HOW MUCH DID YOU SPEND?! I can you hear your cry.

Don't stress! They were so ridiculously affordable, for something that we should be able to get at least a year's use from - but it should be much longer!

I spent:

> $9 on 3 50cm lengths of flannel.

> $4 bin (reject shop!)

> $6 on 1 litre of washing liquid (you can take your own container to fill up, super fun.)

& then about 1 & a half hours of sewing.

BUT HOW?! TELL ME HOW YOU MADE THEM!

Okay, I will. Easy!

I cut the material into roughly 4x4 inch squares - I didn't really measure, nor try to cut straight, as that is something I have well & truly given up on.  I just folded in half, & in half again, until I had shapes I liked! I had 3 types of material, one of which was white and purely for the middle layer. So I made two different types of cloth, both which are adorable. I just sewed zigzag around the edge, I didn't hem or snything special, and a few have started to fray after their first wash - I think after I trim these edges up they will fray no more. 

(After the first wash, they are actually softer & more absorbent. Perhaps a wash before use would be, ahem, useful?)

As you can see - we had 5 & a half rolls of toilet paper left remaining.

 Let's see how long we can make them last?!

Oh yeah, I made 24 cloths, and have enough material to make another 24.

 

preparation.

ready for sewing.

cute little sewing corner.

as always, puppy helps!

finished!

the handy bin.

ready for use!



Also:
In the rest of the bathroom, we are still taking precautions to not blindly waste.
A box of 12 sustainable plantation bamboo toothbrushes costs $36 delivered online, vegetable oil based body wash is available in bulk from the wholefoods store, as well as locally produced goats milk soap. Shampoo & conditioner is also available in bulk, as well there are many lovely eco-friendly beauty products available in many shops everywhere. I love Sukin brand. You can also make your own body scrubs from oats, honey, salt, bi carb soda, coconut oil - the list is endless!

(If you want, I can make you your own toilet cloths. But it is fun to make your own!)
x

today/yesterday

The new house has a tamarillo tree, full of the shapely red tree-tomatoes which have just come into season. After my mother spoon food me a sample of their juicy insides, I knew there was no time to waste in turning them into tasty treats for now & well after their fresh season was over. 

A vegan cheesecake was first on the agenda, something I have never made before but I am oh-so-glad I did - it was delicious & a gift to share with friends.

The crust was made from raw, blended almonds, walnuts, coconut & soaked dates. Being quite the green smoothie/nut butter aficionado of late, I had all of these ingredients sitting pretty in jars in open pantry, waiting for me to utilize them. 

The filling was made from soy cream cheese, tofu, blended cashews, maple syrup & a tad lemon juice. It blended together in a second. Impressed.

It took longer to bake than I though it would.
Probably about an hour, I'm never really sure what temperature I put the oven on. 

 I served this tastiness with a tamarillo coulis, simply the mush from inside the fruit cooked with a little lemon & sugar. Easy & amazingly tasty. I also whipped up some coconut cream with some vanilla as I am a cream fanatic.

The new house needs a veggie patch. We are trying hard to become as self-sufficient as possible, it is taking a little while to get all off the ground here. But we spent today in the sunshine preparing the soil for a fruitful harvest, seeds have been sown in trays in preparation for the day when can place them into the earth,  I started a hanging herb garden for my green smoothies & other fantastic kitchen ventures.

Today we dug up a part of our garden, built a raised bed, collected horse fertilizer from my parents house & raked & raked & raked. Next is to plant the seedlings, construct a rotating compost, build a few more garden beds & hopefully a chook coop.

The succulents are well, as always.
I prepared an entire tray of leaves to self-propagate, excited puppy knocked them over & I will save that job for another day.

(f)route cakes.

Another lovely star next to my name is (F)ROUTE - an amazing local art & food movement based on growing your own, finding your own, supporting your community & being inspired to create beautiful art inspired by beautiful nourishment. Some of my most favorite people in the world run this movement, & I am lucky enough to be involved creating layouts & media full of my photos, words & the spirit of many.

My latest venture was a pocket concertina (f)route cake zine.

It turned out really nicely (& in the interim of production, I met my english brother & sister who have been in the area just long enough to become firmly i planted in out friendship group. More on them later) & soon I will show you just how nice they look.

But for now, here are some photos of some of the cakes, some the final & some the ones I loved too much not to share.

Watch for sneaky puppy working her way into most shots!

 

lemon yoghurt semolina cake

 

ingredient gathering

 

puppy eagerly waiting for some vegan date loaf 

 

overseeing orange cake photo shoot

 

said date loaf

diana.

I am sorry that I have neglected you, although happy I can tell you that the hiatus was indeed temporary & I will always do what I can when I can. Today I have to share with you nothing new, but things that have happened in the past few months.

These photos below are from the first film from my mini diana camera I received for Christmas (from one of my lovely sister-in-laws).

I am beyond happy with how they turned out!

(taken at mcculloch street, fiji, fiji, a friends, pearson street, fiji, fiji, a friends, mccuclloch street)