Month: February 2009

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I don’t want to use your toilet Grandma

A few weeks ago my mum commented that her grandson had told her he didn’t want to use her toilet. When she asked him why, he replied that the dolphins scared him. Mum couldn’t think what he meant until she realised that he was talking about the dolphins on her toilet paper! It got me wondering as to why we scent our paper and go to the bother of printing designs on it. It would seem a rather pointless exercise. For most of us our toilet paper sits under a toilet roll cover so we hardly see the image printed on the paper. The scent isn’t strong enough to make the toilet smell nice and once the toilet paper is used there is no disguising what it has been used for – why on earth is toilet paper scented?????????

There does seem to be some indications too that certain females should stick with plain toilet paper as they get easily irritated by the scented type. Anyway at the end of my musings I realized that there is absolutely no reason why I buy scented, printed paper and I have just automatically done it all my life. So the last few weeks we have changed to plain, unscented, recycled, not re-bleached toilet paper made in NZ. It was also on special this week – 42 cents per roll so we bought up quite a bit. So far there haven’t been any complaints about the change from my rear end J.   

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Breakfast Club gossip

I get to work at about 7:05 a. m. along with a few other colleagues. We have breakfast together to start the day off well – porridge every morning. It’s meant to be an extremely good way to start the day due to the low GI index of porridge which means I don’t usually need to eat again until lunchtime except maybe a piece of fruit.

 

I hadn’t meant to write about pigs again but this morning at the breakfast club talk turned to Jaimie Oliver’s programme on bacon – I hadn’t seen it. The people I was with said they had to turn it off. It was purely by chance that I had written about pig welfare in my blog last night. So I mentioned to my colleagues that what they had seen on the programme re British pig farming might actually be worse in some pig production farms in NZ. I told them about the article I had seen regarding a case of a farmer breaching the less than adequate standards that we already have – they were horrified to think that this could happen here. This article “Small sow stalls found even smaller!” SAFE LovePigs Campaign : Latest news was the one last month that made me stop purchasing pork. If even minimal regulation standards can’t be adhered to and enforced then I would rather opt out of eating pork altogether. So if you are out and about and chatting to people let them know that NZ is not leading the world in animal welfare and that we the consumers have the power to change things.  

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New Zealand Pork (Suffering Babe)

I wrote the main bones of this blog last week, it has just been sitting in my file while I’ve been doing a bit of consumer research. It sort of seemed relevant after my blog on battery hens to also focus on pig welfare.

 

Reading February’s Healthy Food Guide magazine my interest was taken with a small paragraph titled “another reason to buy NZ pork” (pg. 13). The last sentence of this paragraph promoting buying NZ pork read “There’s also no way to know what sort of welfare standards pigs have been raised in overseas”. Knowing that NZ falls behind many other countries in terms of our welfare of pigs I wondered why do we continue to ignore what is in front of us and place ourselves up on a holy “NZ made” pedestal ahead of “overseas”? In NZ we allow our pigs to be raised in appalling conditions all in the name of cheaper pork while other countries have taken significant strides to improve pig welfare.

 

One of my February challenges has been to give up pork – it’s not that hard when you see those crates and those pigs. Hubby still loves his bacon and is holding out so one of my tasks over the next few weeks is to find a free range supplier of bacon for him. 

SAFE this week have sent footage of our pig farming to Jamie Oliver to see if they can gain his assistance to put international pressure on our government Scoop: Jamie Oliver Asked To Save Kiwi Pigs . 

 

This year the NZ government is expected to review pig farming standards. It’s a great time to be lobbying your government – see SAFE LovePigs Campaign : What you can do for lots of good ideas.  

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Battery Hens

As usual the weekend Dominion Post paper (Dominion Post, 23/02/2009) provided some interesting reading material (as well as my rubbish bin liner for the week). In amongst an article on raising chickens in your garden was a little paragraph inset quoting Agriculture Minister David Carter. According to the article David has stated that he has no plans to change the regulations covering battery farming in NZ and that the issue will be driven by consumer demand.

 

It got me wondering. I’ve bought free range eggs for as long as I’ve been of the age to do my own grocery shopping but how many others are also purchasing free range? How long will hens have to wait for reasonable animal welfare standards if NZ waits for the consumer? According to the NZ healthy food guide magazine sales of free range eggs now account for 11% of all the eggs we buy in supermarkets (Feb 2009, p. 10). I don’t think the battery caged hens in NZ will be expecting liberty any day soon somehow with that small figure. So why is NZ so far behind other countries? Sainsbury’s announced this year that it will now only sell free range eggs and other big supermarkets in England will be similarly following suit (Supermarket to go free-range only – World – NZ Herald News).

Why is animal welfare such a low priority in New Zealand? Lots of good questions regarding animal welfare and farming can be sent to David if you have the time – postage to parliament is free.

If you’re interested in making life for ex- battery hens a bit more comfortable check this link out New life for battery farm hens | Otago Daily Times Online

 

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Sunday morning routines

Well it’s 9am and time to go wake a sleeping husband. So far this morning………

 

  • A full load of towels is out on the line blowing in the wind. Another load is on the way. We deliberately haven’t put a drier in this house so we don’t get tempted although there is room for it if we were to sell the house.
  • The dishwasher is humming away on eco setting after an hour of baking has helped fill it up to full load. The dishwasher goes on during the day/evening now so that I can stop the dishwasher when it gets to dry mode and just open the door to let the dishes air dry – saves about 15 minutes of power with my machine cycle.
  • Chocolate slice is setting in the fridge and a batch of pikelets has been made and packaged away in the freezer. I’ve been really impressed with how pikelets freeze, they come out exactly the same as they go in. Today was the first time I managed to put a whole batch in the freezer without being tempted!
  • Crumble has been made (5 minute job) and put in the freezer ready to use for desserts the next few weeks. Crumble doesn’t really freeze – it just stays in the same state and can be put straight onto the top of canned/stewed fruit. Definitely worth making. Really easy for kids to make.
  • The fridge has been checked out for things about to reach their expiry date so they can be used up. The cream is almost there so pasta has been put on the food planner for tonight and steak taken out to thaw.  I’ll have to hunt out my jelly/cream mousse recipe to use up the rest of the cream. I read the other day that you can freeze milk which I have to admit I never thought of in terms of using up milk but I’m looking forward to trying when I need to. At the same I’ve filled up the extra spaces in the fridge with water bottles to make the fridge operate more efficiently and it means that we always have water for emergency situations.
  • The spending for the week has been entered in our finance spreadsheet on the computer. I use this so we can keep an eye on where spending is going in order to make better informed decisions. The food bill items get entered also so we can keep track of when food prices are good value.
  • The bills for the next week have all been sorted and paid electronically so I don’t lose out on prompt payment discounts.
  • The cats have been fed and their can washed for recycling. Steel can recycling from the last few weeks has been packaged up ready to go out on rubbish day. Aluminium cans have gone in the garage to be taken to the recycler for cash when the amount has built up enough.   

Not that hubby will probably notice any of this!  But it all makes for an easier week for me as my job is pretty full on and it all helps keep costs down in various areas so I don’t mind getting up a little early to get it all done.

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Takeaway update

Well we lasted 51 days takeaway free! We would have lasted longer but we were in Wellington the other day and passed our favourite restaurant/takeaway – Satay Village. My mother-in-law, who is still recovering from a stroke, had mentioned the other day that she hadn’t eaten their food in such a long time. We ate the takeaways at her place, so technically our house is still a takeaway free zone, but I still felt I had to admit it J. However, once in 2 months is still pretty good compared to what we used to eat. We got fresh home grown lettuce and tomatoes out of it in return for bringing the takeaways as well as some extra plastic containers so it wasn’t all bad, plus my mother-in-law was in seventh heaven eating their calemari dish and their chicken wings ……..mmmmmmmm. And if you have to break your takeaway streak then it might as well be with lovely food such as at Satay Village.  

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Weekly shopping trip

It was our weekly trip to the grocery store this morning. When you only let yourself go food shopping once a week it becomes a little more exciting! Hubby even had the shopping bags all organised ready to go this morning.  

 

I was glad I wore my jeans to do our grocery shopping this morning as I ended up spending a lot of time crouching on the floor peering at the price of the brands that get stocked right down at floor level. I have to admit I didn’t see many people doing the same thing but that’s ok – I don’t mind looking silly while I’m saving a few dollars.

 

It was startling to see how many people are still buying plastic bags to put their groceries in. Even if you’re not into the environment thing buying a shopping bag would be paid off in a few weeks compared to the constant price of buying plastic bags so it makes sense money wise. Or bringing cardboard boxes (if you have a car) would be even cheaper.

 

I noticed when looking at the price screen at the counter that the advertisement was promoting buying shopping bags. Thumbs up to Pak n Save for reminding people that they don’t need to buy plastic bags. Woolworths on the other hand would have to be the worst supermarket I’ve found – everything is automatically put in a bag even if only one item. They seem determined to use up as many plastic bags as possible.

 

I wonder what would happen if a supermarket didn’t provide plastic bags at all for customers??? I presume we would all still come and shop.

 

 

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Banana Cake

The banana cake was still lovely after not making if for the last year nine years or so. It came out exactly how I remembered it. It does use up quite large quantities of ingredients but in my opinion it is a lovely cake. The recipe comes from the St. Bernard’s College, Lower Hutt cook book. I think from memory the book was published over 20 years ago. Sometimes fundraising school cookbooks have the best recipes as they are family favourites that have been well and truly tested.

 

 

2 1/2 cups flour

1 2/3 cup sugar

1 ¼ teaspoons baking soda dissolved in 2/3 cup milk

¾ cup melted butter

3 mashed bananas

2 eggs

 

Put ingredients together, lastly eggs and melted butter. Beat all 2 minutes. Bake ¾ – 1 hour 180oC.

 

I have always made this in a ring tin (well greased) and it comes out lovely and high and moist with a crunchy top crust. Not sure how it will turn out in other types of tins.

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Recession and Baking

Reading the cooking section in the Dominion Post last weekend (7/02/2009) I was interested to read a comment by Ruth Petty (NZ  cook) that in her opinion the resurgence in home baking due to the recession is probably not money driven as it takes quite a bit of finance to have a well stocked pantry of ingredients. Instead she attributed the resurgence to people ‘seeking quality and comfort to circumvent the bad news’ while also ‘embracing their heritage’. 

 

The article made me reflect on my cooking over the last couple of months. Why am I doing more baking? It’s definitely not because I want to be comforted about bad news! I’m a realist – face it and get on with it the best way you can,

 

I guess one reason is that raw ingredients sit happily in the cupboard or the fridge, don’t go off for quite a while and can be used to make a variety of different products which makes the weekly menu more interesting. If you buy a cake you’re stuck with eating the cake and that’s all you’re getting for the week.  

 

If I buy a packet of biscuits from the shop they are sort of sitting there in the cupboard, beckoning, saying ‘eat me’. If I buy ingredients the biscuits have to be made first which delays the eating and some weeks may not get made at all. This helps the waistline as well as the wallet.

 

In many cases baking is cheaper than buying – it all depends on what you bake. Ruth Petty’s Plum Crumble Cupcakes have 17 ingredients – there is no way I am going to bake something that expensive when I can make something much simpler and cheaper. Costed carefully there are lots of baking recipes that are cheaper than buying (and are not wrapped in plastic).

 

With the recession I am tending to do activities that cost less so I am at home more.  Baking is becoming once again more of a hobby – you get to create while also producing food for the family so it’s a win-win hobby. My first early morning task today was a batch of pikelets which are now packaged in reused plastic containers in the freezer ready for the week. Tomorrow night will be banana cake baking as I can see a few bananas that need to be saved before it’s too late. I haven’t used my favourite banana cake recipe for about 10 years but I’ll publish the recipe tomorrow if the cake is still as yummy as I remember.

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Recycled goods

Having just come in from the boiling hot sun, covered in paint, red faced and exhausted I can’t say I’m feeling very positive about recycling at the moment! Recycling your paper, cans, plastic is child’s play compared to recycling your weatherboards. Taking them off carefully, denailing them, running them through the thicknesser again and again, sanding the edges and finally priming the boards. There have been days I have stood there with my ear muffs on, waiting for the wood to come through the thicknesser, dreaming of running down to the hardware store and buying brand new already primed weatherboards………………mmmmmm. However I am presently convincing myself that at the end it will all have been worth it and I will feel great at having saved all that wood!

 

Other recycled goods of course are not such hard work. The last month or so we have been trying in as many ways as we can to find alternatives when we need something.

  • The cats adore their new ice-cream container water bowl. It may not be a designer bowl but it has been very popular with the temperatures soaring.
  • Needing some more clothes to go back to work I popped in to Save Mart and found a lovely skirt and blouse. All up $15. You don’t always find what you are looking for but it’s worth dropping in every now and then. I prefer doing this than using Trade Me for clothes as then the clothes have to be wrapped up for posting.
  • My mum needed a lighter coffee table that she could move around easily by herself. We had one so we did a trade. As a bonus her coffee table was a box with a lid so we get extra storage in the house.
  • Containers that come from food we have prchased get stored and reused. Seemingly sales of adult lunchboxes are on the increase (Dominion post, 7/02/2009). What a waste of money! My recycled containers go to and from work with me each day.  
  • Our brown framed mirrors from our old house will next weekend get painted black to match the décor in our new house.