recipe ~ peanut crunch slice

Hello everyone.

Yes I  know I am not supposed to be eating this kind of food, but I couldn't resist! And then I thought you would all love to know about this scrumptious slice too. 

As I don't eat animal products, I have marked with a star what I substituted for the butter. I also did not have peanuts so subbed for peanut butter. Raisins were replaced by dates.  I love a flexible recipe.

This yummy slice recipe comes from a new to me blog. 

Linda lives in beautiful New Zealand, and shares posts about her simple life, faith, recipes, gardening, youtube videos, her lovely soap and so much more.  Why not pop over and visit Linda at The Little Homestead.

Paula's Peanut Crunch 

{copied and pasted from The Little Homestead}

In a saucepan melt  - 2 dessertspoons golden syrup and 150grams butter * {I used Nuttlex}. Remove from heat and add 2 teaspoons vanilla essence.

In a bowl mix: 

1 Cup self raising flour

3/4 cup coconut

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup raw peanuts - smash them up a little *{I used crunchy peanut paste}

1/2 cup raisins *{I used chopped medjool dates}

1 cup cornflakes

Add the butter mixture to the dry and mix well. Bake at 170 C for around 30 minutes, or until golden.

Optional Icing: (this goes on the slice as soon as it comes out of the oven) 1.5 Tablespoons golden syrup, 50g butter, 1.5 cups icing sugar. Melt butter and syrup together. beat in the icing sugar, and put back on the heat a little until the sugar melts some and the mixture just gets easier to spread. Remove from the heat and spread over the hot base. Cool and cut into slices/squares. Enjoy with a cuppa :)

Let me know if you make this yummy slice J

Enjoy!

xTania

health, fitness and busyness

Hello again friends.

I hope you are all settling into the new year and safe from the fires that are ravaging our country. These are horrific times for Australia. So many people left without homes, and so many of our beautiful native wildlife perished or badly injured, same with livestock.  I sit here feeling helpless while all the carnage is going on. We are safe where we are, although getting smoke from the Kangaroo Island fires.

In case you were wondering where I have been, I will be back posting soon. I really wanted to post earlier but had some health issues appear so I haven't felt in the mood, instead I have been back and forth to the doctors and hospital for x-rays. 

After a few worrying days, it turns out that I have fatty liver and acid reflux problems. Thank goodness I found out about the liver as left to build up, it can have serious consequences. The doctor thinks that having my gall bladder removed about twenty years ago may well be the cause of fat deposits in my liver. The other issue I have suffered for years is indigestion and stomach problems, but this time it decided to flare up into burning pain that would not go away, so off to the doctor I went and he ordered a blood test. This came back showing that I had elevated liver enzymes and low white blood cell count, so this is why there were xrays taken. 

This now means that my year and the rest of my life has been laid out for me. I have to keep healthy by eating low carb and low fat food. This sadly means no more cakes and biscuits etc, or at least a lot less. Boohoo! And with acid reflux, I will still have to avoid food that can set off an attack, even though I have medication now. The other thing is to increase my exercise from a casual walk to a bit of cardio, I need my heart to get pumping because this helps the liver dispose of fat.

Anyway, that's enough of my woes. It is hot here today (44C) and hubby and I have been organising what we call the rumpus room. It is a room that we built off the side of the shed, where my crafty things are kept plus a myriad of other things, including junk and lots of it!. As the room has air conditioning, we decided to go out there and get busy. So after much rearranging and sorting of stuff to go to the op shops, it is now up to me to finish off by packing things away.  I have gym equipment in there and will be needing to use it everyday for the rest of my life, so this was a job that needed doing. I will also be able to craft until my heart is content once all my sewing gear etc is sorted and organised. Oh my goodness I cant wait! 

A smoky sunset. The sun was actually blood red, but it did not show up in the photo.  It was quite eerie.

The smoky haze laying over our town after sundown.

I'll be back soon with another post and I might even show you where I am at with the now newly named "craft" room.

Take care all.

xTania

Just in time for 2020.

Hello dear friends,

For a long time now, it has been my intention to return to this little space, and so with 2020 beginning tomorrow, I feel it is a good time to come back.

2019 is not a year I want to remember. I wont go into too many details here, lets just say that anxiety and depression have paid me a visit in a big way. It is not one single thing that is causing my sadness, but a multitude of different things, like the extreme heat and drought and my struggle to grow food, the fires and the people suffering loss, family issues, the sad state of the world and so the list goes on...

I am hoping that returning to my homemaking roots will help me deal with the feelings of despair that I have been struggling with. I am well within that "certain" age where I am feeling very emotional, angry, and frustrated with everything in life. Any advice would be very welcome.

I have always loved the vintage way of life, so this year I will be striving to live a more simpler life by implementing the principles of a woman living in the 50's and 60's, with a mix of earlier times and also bit from the retro era...

This little space will be about all things homemaking, vintage loves, and of course my garden.

The above rose was the first one to open on a young bush I planted out in winter last year. I was so excited to watch it form a bud and then open into a magnificent red bloom. This is an old favourite, Mr Lincoln, and the aroma was so beautiful.

And then there was this Dahlia. Mum gave me four bulbs leftover from hers, but only two have come up. This yellow beauty and an apricot coloured one (sorry no pic because the heat fried it!).

Some of the produce I have picked from the vegetable patch.

These are my Lebanese cucumbers.  I have attached string to a piece of rope strung over the top to hold the vines off the ground, because apparently the lizards like love to eat the flowers...

Before our recent heatwaves I was picking a lot of zucchinis. Now not so much, they are suffering stress from the relentless heat, as are many of my other plants.

The sunflowers I planted a while ago have grown so tall. The tallest one is well over six foot! They are protecting the tin now from getting too hot while the young saltbush plants are growing. You can see the seven year beans winding their way up through the lattice.  These are planted on the inside of the vegetable patch, and as their name suggests they can last up to seven years.

The first sunflower popped out happily today, the others are not far behind. I love the way they follow the sun.

We made beeswax from a rescued hive. So looking forward to a regular supply of this!

Another year, another birthday. My dear mum who is now 80 always makes a special cake for me.

Also for my birthday, hubby made a coffee table from left over red gum.

The main piece of red gum he used to make a top for this special table.

I try to fit in regular sourdough baking, because this bread is so good!

From the beginning of my blogging in 2007, I have always enjoyed Rhonda Jeans blog.  She was the one who inspired me on my journey to a simpler way of living and thinking.   Then a few years ago I stumbled across Grandma Donna's blog, and I knew that this was how I wanted to live. So since then, I have slowly incorporated the old days into my everyday life. I absolutely love browsing over gDonna's blog pages, this makes me dream of simpler times, some of which I remember from my younger days. We all know those times weren't simple compared to today's modern conveniences, but still there is a draw back to those times. My parents, in their 80's say that they were lucky to live through the good times of the 50's and 60's, and right now I believe them.

I hope you will join me along my journey, maybe we can inspire each other, and maybe, just maybe it is what is needed in this world.

Wishing everyone a WONDERFUL NEW YEAR!

Love and peace to you all.

xTania

A Bit of Randomness

While in Adelaide recently we went to the Port Adelaide Sunday markets. I love going to these and finding treasures.

I have wanted a decent sized teapot for some time now as I only had a vintage aluminium one, and I was a bit concerned about using it.  I found this brown English beauty in one of the stalls. It holds six cups.

Phil is a fan of vintage Fire King kitchen ware.  He was so pleased to find some to add to our collection.  They are a favourite of mine too.   

Lastly I found a soap saver.  I already have one of these but it is not in as good condition as the one pictured.  Put velvet soap in the mesh section and wash the dishes the old fashioned way. You need to watch out though as the dishes get very slippery.

I made Annabel's banana cake.  Look at the size of this cake, and I halved the recipe! I substituted the milk/lemon for yoghurt, and iced with chocolate icing. 

You really MUST bake this cake! 

Recently the electricity was out for quite a few hours. We had a storm go through and also maintenance done on the line.

We did have lights as they are solar powered, but we needed the generator going to help out.

The cord going to the house.

 This is what it looked like inside with cords running everywhere.

I had washing to do that couldn't wait.  There was enough power to wash and spin but not to drain the machine.  So I had to wait until the power was back on to drain the water.

Some quick thinking to heat up some pies for my son who always comes home for lunch. I had taken pies out of the freezer and luckily the fire was on so I could heat them up. I become resourceful and felt like I was back in the olden days lol! 

I had run out of bread to make sandwiches.

I put the pies on top of the stove at about 10.30 and by lunch time they were perfect to eat.

 Spring is near. 

We are having more nice warm sunshiny days.

  

A beautiful sunrise we had recently.

Knitting while travelling.

I am making booties for my new grandchild due in January 2016.

 While we were away the girls laid three dozen eggs.  It is great that they are laying again.  Wont be long and we will have broody girls to put some fertile eggs under.

We sell excess eggs to cover the cost of feed.

 I found these in an op shop recently. A Suzanne Grae green jumper and a vintage sheet.

I have a vision to make pretty table napkins from this.

A visit to my parents again and this is what I brought home.  Two bags of organic plain flour and two coconuts.

I mentioned on the Down to Earth Forum  about this gift my grandmother made for me thirty five years ago when I got married the first time.  

It is one of my special treasures.  It is getting a bit tired and worn from use.  I keep my bits and pieces of jewelry in it.

  

And look what I found out in the shed.  I have been drooling over Annabels pretty bottles like the one in this post. And then I remembered these I had found years ago.  Unfortunately they dont have the stoppers. Does anyone know where I could get some? Otherwise I will use corks.

  

I picked these off our trees when I got home. 

Four ice cream containers of quandongs (wild peaches).  Like other fruit, I stew them up with sugar and water.  Definitely need sugar to eat these as they can be quite sour. 

First dessert in my new dish.  Annabel's golden syrup pudding.  So simple and easy, go here for the recipe.

My baby tomato plants I planted before going away.

I am hoping to post more on this blog. Thank you for being patient with me while I get it up and running.

g. Donna's - Generations Before Us

A new to me blog with lot of hints for living the old fashioned way. 

gdonna.com

This post in particular caught my eye.

 A Comfortable Home

I love it!

Hope you enjoy it too J

A Busy Week and Some Savings

Here is what I have been up to this week.

I made a whole orange cake from gifted oranges.

 I have been adding pretty touches to my journal/diary. This is how I  keep on track with daily jobs and different things.  

I have a to do list and I write out a little scripture from the Bible.  At the top I add the weather showing the temperature with a sunny or cloudy picture.  I keep record of how many eggs I collect and how much rain falls as well as how many mandarins in weight I have harvested.  

So far I have picked 67.3kgs of mandarins and the tree is still loaded.

I  decided to make use of my fireplace to dry breadcrumbs.

And I hung bunches of parsley and thyme near the fire to dry as well. This was really successful.

 We did a flying trip back to our hometown to catch up with friends.

 Ceduna is located four hours away.

 My parents live along the way so we stopped there for a day and night.

 Although it was cloudy the whole time we were there, the water was glassy calm.

This is the view from our friends house. 

I can imagine waking up to this each day, simply lovely J

I took some cuttings from my friends geranium plants.  I love these old fashioned flowers.  They grow really well here as they are so tough and hardy.

A gift from my dad.  

An old trolley that has a tabletop with drop sides.  It is still at my parents house because we didn't have the room to bring it home.

Here are some strawberries that were given to my parents. These came from the local supermarket and were going to be  discarded. Having a friend whose family owns the store can be a real asset. This is a large ice cream container full, and I was able to bring them all home.

 I also brought home some pineapple,

 onions,

 and avocados. 

These were all given to my parents.

I wish I lived closer as mum cant always handle all the food they are gifted. She does what she can by making jams, freezing etc to use things up, but sometimes the food ends up being given to the chickens, which is still okay, and they definitely don't complain  J 

 I prepared the strawberries for the freezer. I will make some jam with these and use some in our smoothies.

 There were eight pineapples all up.   I gave one to my daughter and the rest I peeled, chopped and put into bags in the freezer.  I am going to make some jam from these too and add to smoothies, pizzas etc.

My mum had these two jars in her cupboard. 

They are quite large and will come in handy for storage in my pantry. There are also some smaller ones in the op shop that my mum is going to get for me.  I like the way that Annabel has decorated these types of jars for her pantry.

 Another gift from dad. 

This time a retro plant stand.

 I gave it a clean and added some furniture oil to the wood, then placed my coleus in it. This plant started with the tiniest cutting I brought home.  They are so easy to grow, especially in a well lit area.

 On to our savings from my previous post.

Here is the bottle full of $2.00 coins.

All counted and it held a total of $948.00.

Not quite $1000, but close enough.

We have put this money in a tin to use for our travels.

 

We are in for a rough, freezing cold weekend.  Next week will be much of the same.  I will be getting some jobs done inside with the fire going to keep us warm.

Stay cosy everyone J