Insourcing....Winter is here!

 

Some people hate Winter. Not me!

 

Winter means gorgeous sunsets and stormy skies with rainbows.

 

Winter means the slow cooker comes out.

 

 It means I can bake to my hearts content and it warms the house.

 

It means brisk walks in scarves and gloves, and dressing up, and wearing boots.

 

It means quilts on the armchairs, and the fire blazing...yes even in the Sub-Tropics we have a few weeks of chilly weather and winds whipping our hair...truth!

 

This week I made sausage rolls, warming the house while I was at it. Always a hit. Sesame seeds are my version of 'gourmet'.

 

I scoured Pinterest to find the table I want Husband to build for the dining room now that the poor man is finished hanging real crystals on chandeliers. Got to keep the man busy, right?

 

I'm rather favouring this look, but longer. We currently have 16 family members, so that's one heckuva table for celebrations. Note, this is not our table (yet!). It's one I found on aforementioned Pinterest.

 

  I have 28 chairs picked up here and there for a song. Some I only paid $5 for. I'll unify them by painting them black as seen below, and I'll cover their inset cushions in Coffee Sacks...likewise collected here and there for a song...or for free sometimes!

 

 

Then my French Empire Chandeliers and sconces will go up in their permanent positions, and wheeeeeee….!!!

 

 

 My green soup is an absolute winner for lunches here. It's literally just the end of the celery that has all the leaves on it, a couple of diced potatoes, onions and whatever other limp greens are left in the crisper. A few cups of stock, some spices, whizz it all once cooked. This feeds me for lunch for the entire week AND gives me a good dose of my 5 veg.

 

Have you seen the price of soup???? That's got to be around $50 worth for pretty much free when you consider most folk toss the celery leaves in the bin!

 

Veg doesn't just go into soup here. Vege patties for burgers are a regular too. Cook 'em, mash 'em, add lentils or beans, spring onions and spices, pat 'em into egg rings and refrigerate to firm them up. Pan fry, pop on a burger bun....yum!

 

Vegetarian burgers from the trendy burger bar near us are $21. EACH. I made 8 burgers over the course of the week.

 



 

Burger mince isn't just for burgers by the way.

 

I whacked our burger mince (pork and veal) into a bowl with eggs, breadcrumbs, fresh herbs, pistachios and cranberries. I smooshed it altogether and lined a loaf dish with bacon.

 

I smooshed the mixture into the loaf tin on top of the bacon.

See? Then I topped that with more bacon....

 



 

I popped that into a water bath, and baked it long and slow in a moderate oven, covered with foil, for about 90 minutes.

 

Once cooked, I chilled it, weighted it down overnight with full cans of beans, then flipped it out and it looked like this above, uncut, and below, cut..

 

 

Yum, right?

 

I'm not kidding when I tell you that I saw a terrine just like this at a posh deli, for $7.50 per 100 grams. That's $75 per kilo or $35 per pound! Mine cost $16 and weighs nearly 3 kilos (6 1/2 lbs). Sounds good to me.

 

How was your week?

 

What did you Insource?

 

...Mimi...

 

 

 

 

Insourcing...my value in the home...May 2020

    I may as well be up front. This post is mostly about my chandelier restorations and gratuitous blinging.   And a bit about cooking.   I've always loved chandeliers. When I was a child, my mother worked in the kitchens and function rooms of the five star hotels in our city. We as kids, would sometimes accompany her when she could not find a babysitter. We were good kids, and would sit quietly filling the salt and pepper shakers and sugar bowls for the chef.   Always, always, there were chandeliers. I adored them. And ever since, I've wanted them in my home.   It's been a long, long, loooong wait, and has taken viewing of many chandeliers, to decide my preferences.   But to my immense pride, I saved enough money to buy these French Empire Basket chandeliers, and pair of wall sconces, from a flea market in Nice, earlier this year. I had to walk past many other beautiful treasures to fund these, and that alone, just about broke my heart. But I am so thrilled with them! I had priced these over the last decade or so, and they range from $1,200- $3,000 each.   I bought these two chandeliers, and the two wall sconces behind, for 500 Euros for the lot, and about 250 Euros to post them home. 750 Euros at that time, would have been the equivalent of about $1,400 AUD. BUT, to buy these locally or online, would have cost me around 3 to 4 times that price, so I'm very pleased indeed.     Alas one of the wall sconces was broken upon arrival, and clever husband had to find a way to fix it. Mission accomplished though, and none the worse for the wear. Many crystals were also broken, and we had to source new ones locally. If you look closely above, you can see some of the octagon chains, dangling loose from their moorings.   Meanwhile, Husband was totally converted to the whole Chandelier idea by this time, and as I've mentioned a few weeks ago, we found this one below, as a total tangled mess, in a thrift store. It had two wall sconces hung on it, as the store staff thought they were part of the main chandelier.   We paid $90 for the chandelier and the two sconces.   Husband patiently untangled, repainted and reattached the crystals and we ended up with this....     But I wasn't done. Oh no, no, no.   Since we had to buy replacements for the French chandeliers, I decided we needed further bling on this one.   16 chains and maple leaf drops later...     ..it looks like this....     ...happy me.   Meanwhile....here are all the crystals...sigh...pretty.   And that gold spiky thing? That's one of the wall sconces we scored for well...let's say $15 each. Bereft of crystals.     And here it is now...     ...not in it's final spot. It still needs replacement of the little mirror behind it too.   Next project will be to replace the acrylic drops and octagon chains on our $110 bargains from Bunnings Warehouse, seen below, with the real crystals. To buy these already with true crystals would be around $1,000.   All up, our crystal spend has been around $500 for ALL the crystals we needed.   Total spend on chandeliers and wall sconces has been $1,510.   Let's say that's a total of $2,000 over a six month period.   Total value purchased new, or online from antique dealers, around $8,000. And that's a conservative estimate.   I'm pretty chuffed with that!   Meanwhile, it's not all about crystals.   I made broccoli soup in the slow cooker. The potato gives it substance.
Why buy individual custards, when you can make them...

...and turn them out into little ramekins, pour over maple syrup, and call them Cheats Crème Caramels...  
Mothers Day brownie gifts were made. This one had a base of Lindt chocolate. To buy these in an upmarket deli, would cost around $4 each. I made 24 the same size for around $8. That's a value of $96.00 for a spend of $8.00.  
I packaged them like this....

..although in the past, I've also done this...  
Here's that recipe:  

Microwave chocolate brownie

 

Place 125 gms chopped butter, and 200 gms chopped dark chocolate in a large microwave proof bowl.

Microwave on medium power for 3 minutes until not quite entirely melted. Stir until smooth.

Add 1 1/4 cups soft brown sugar, 3 eggs, and 3/4 cup plain flour to the chocolate mixture and stir until smooth.

Pour the mixture into a 650ml-750 ml square microwave safe container and cover with cling wrap.

Place the container on a microwave proof rack or upended plate in the center of the microwave.
Cook on medium (500w/50%) for 6-8 minutes.

Cool in the container.

To serve dust with icing sugar.

Daughter made beetroot gnocchi. We all joked that these look more like miniature meat patties, but the were delicious nonetheless. Three serves of gourmet gnocchi at a restaurant? Around $60. Ours cost around $6.     Feta, lemon, chilli and basil pasta for lunches. Around $2 per serve to make. Around $16 per serve to buy.     Jam drops. So easy to make. Ridiculously expensive to buy.     I made 4 dozen.   Apparently that's about $52 worth.   My value in the home this month?   A very lot.   As my younger sister used to say.   About $6,500.   Happy me.   How is 2020 shaping up for you?   ...Mimi...  

Insourcing...from a working womans perspective...

 

Insourcing when you work full time, is not for the faint hearted, I can tell you right now.

 

I've learned a few things in the three months since I returned full time to the corporate world.

 

For example, tinned tuna, and cured meats are your friend. A decent tin of tuna, some pre-made GF gnocchi and a bit of baby spinach gave us a gourmet feast one night. Restaurant worthy...3 serves for $8.

 

Leftover Christmas Ham (and why DO we only buy a leg of ham at Christmas....such a budget friendly meal really), made a platter to feast on another hot night, for under $10.

 

I'm learning to KISS...Keep It Simple Sweetie...

 

Short list for easy insourcing:

 

Eggs

Pre-made gnocchi

Tuna

Baby potatoes

Grow some herbs

Baby spinach or rocket

Cherry tomatoes

Red onion

Parmesan cheese

Smoked meats or fish like salmon

Capers, cocktail onions, relishes

Shredded cooked chicken (my poached chicken breast is ideal)

 

Keep that lot on hand and you'll never go hungry.

 

I promise.

 

 

Birthdays remain a reason to splurge, but the splurge here was a pair of Birkenstock sandals (her request), and a Mimco jewellery set sourced as an unwanted gift on eBay. Thankyou for the half price Mimco eBay!

 

Butchers paper and silk flowers remain a firm favourite for gift embellishing. That 5 kgs of butchers paper has lasted me 7 years...and probably 7 more to go! MUCH money saved on gift wraps. I couldn't begin to tell you.

 

We dipped our toes in the water one weekend. We ate at home the whole time to avoid the holiday crowds. Much money saved on cafes and the like. At least $300, probably more like $500.

 

Lavender picking, not screen time, was the order of the day for the granddaughters. French Lavender always makes everyone feel good. Price...free...

 

A gift of some Sari inspired fabric saw me making petal tassels one Sunday. I hung them on the Christmas tree...which is still up. Is that wrong in February?

 

I trotted out the pencil skirts and heels more than once....Etsy is my new best friend for upcycled, vintage inspired work clothes. Hundreds saved on retail purchases. Truly.

That's where this Chanel inspired knit came from too...

 

Meanwhile, Husband has been sawing and hammering up a frenzy to build me a new She Shed.

 

Lucky me!

 

Those Hermes scarves...expensive things but on a dollar-per-wear basis, I'm down to mere cents.

 

Get one. You won't regret it.

 

One step quiche is the order of the day for Work lunches.

 

A bit of sewing when I had a minute, saved me over $300 in designer pillowcases. I'm on a roll there.

 

Fresh snapper baked with miso butter and herbed veges was another easy meal. Snapper pieces were $13 a kilo at the market. Yummy.

 

And you know we love a good yoghurt parfait. Coconut yoghurt...home made of course. That saves us around $50 a week. I kid you not.

 

Fresh herbs snipped into gnocchi another night, saved $60 on takeaway. We have expensive taste in takeaway. What can I say.

 

Work looks. Fun.

 

And the staff at work got a glimpse into the 'Real Mimi' with a vegan cake for a morning tea.

 

I'm killing it friends.

 

You'd be proud of me.

 

What did you insource last month?