Slice Making

For as long as I can remember, my grandmother has always kept a range of slices cut up in the freezer, ready to pull out at a moments notice when guests arrive or for taking to "bring a plate" type functions.

Her lemon slice is a favourite amongst all her family members and she's quite well known for it amongst friends as well. It always seems to be the first to disappear on a plate of mixed slice. :-)

I've never been a slice maker myself. Not 100% sure why. I bake cakes and muffins and biscuits, but rarely slice. I think I've always considered them a little more on the complicated side (one of the reasons I *really* like baking muffins is that I don't have to ice them LOL). And often they have fruit and/or nuts in them which makes them that little bit more expensive and my children won't eat dried fruit (and aren't allowed to eat nuts until they're 7).

I was planning to make a couple of slice recipes up today. We need to take a plate of dessert for our family service at church tomorrow and I needed to find something I could make with ingredients in the cupboard. I knew I'd spotted a chocolate weetbix slice on a thread on the Simple Savings forum and thought I'd try that. We were also given some lemons last week and free lemons always makes me think of making Grandma's Lemon Slice.

For some reason the urge to bake hit me at about 5pm last night. That would have worked out okay except for the fact that I couldn't get the lid off my new food processor and had to wait until DH got home to pull it off for me. Not to be perturbed I went ahead and started my baking while DH finished tea off. Talk about a circus in the kitchen. Kids everywhere (some days I'm SURE we have more than 3 LOL) and benchtops covered in cut up salad (I'd already started preparing the hamburgers for tea before DH got home), an electric frypan, food processor and numerous baking ingredients. I got the lemon slice made and in the fridge before tea, then made the chocolate slice between main course and dessert (while the kids were still eating). That cooked while we had dessert and then after tea I iced both slices. Absolute madness!!!! My excuse was that I could reuse most of the dishes for both slices and cut down on the number of dishes piling up with the tea dishes. In reality, when I get an idea in my head - I find it hard to change course. Full bore ahead! LOL.

I have just sampled both slices and they are waaaayyyyy too more-ish. Maybe that's the reason I don't regularly make slices? :-) Here are the recipes if you want to try this at home:

GRANDMA'S LEMON SLICE

1/2 tin condensed milk
4 oz margarine or butter
1/2 pound crushed biscuits
1 cup coconut
rind of 1 lemon
juice of half a lemon (use the other half in the icing)

Melt condensed milk and butter together. Crush biscuits and mix with coconut and lemon rind. Mix together all ingredients including juice of 1/2 lemon. Spread in a slice tray and refrigerate until set.

Make up lemon icing using juice of other half lemon and ice when set. Sprinkle top with extra coconut.

If you'd like to make this recipe even cheaper or you find you don't have any condensed milk on hand - you can make your own! Here is the recipe (thanks to Hillbilly Housewife):

SWEETENED CONDENSED MILK

1 cup dry milk powder
2/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup boiling water
3 Tbsp margarine

Milk until smooth. Makes the equivalent of 1 can of condensed milk. Remember the above recipe only uses half - I just halved the ingredients as I made this so I had the right quantity for my lemon slice. Alternatively you can make a double batch of the lemon slice but I didn't have 2 packets of biscuits to do that with.

EASY CHOCOLATE SLICE
3 crushed weetbix
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup SR flour
1 cup coconut
4 tsp cocoa
4 oz butter

Melt butter and add to other ingredients. Press into tin. Cook in moderate overn for 15 minutes. Ice while warm with chocolate icing.

This is GREAT if you get a craving for chocolate and don't have any on hand. Mind you, as I was typing the recipe I realised that I read the cocoa as Tbsp not tsp so mine is probably a little more chocolatey than the actual recipe. LOL. Lucky you can never have too much chocolate eh?

And don't do what I did and try to ice it straight out of the oven. It's very soft when it first comes out of the oven. Let it cool a little like you would biscuits before trying to ice the top.

Shopaholics Anonymous

I've decided that shopping is a habit. I will confess, I looooovvvveee shopping. Actually, I used to love shopping. When we moved from Melbourne to a regional town in South Australia I felt a bit lost. I'd spent many of my recreational hours as a teenager just wandering large shopping complexes, drinking in the atmosphere and ocassionally snagging a bargain. It was a great way to unwind. To find myself in a town of 10,000 or so people after the many many choices of shopping complexes was a bit bewildering at first. As things turned out it was a preparatory step to finishing up on a farm where there are NO shops for miles around. LOL.

What's a farm-bound shopaholic to do? For a while I would find myself salivating whenever we went to Adelaide - shops! Hundreds of shops!!! Let me at them! LOL. The great thing then was that because I didn't get to shop as often, I NEEDED to buy things. I got very proficient at spending large amounts of money in short spaces of time (after all what choice did I have?). Gone were the days of spending a mere $5 during a whole days shopping excursion. Instead, it became the norm for my dockets to be well in excess of $100. I gradually became somewhat desensitised to large totals at the checkout.

Over time though I noticed something changing. Instead of feeling energised and excited upon entering large shopping complexes, I started to feel overwhelmed and slightly panicked. I was no longer desensitised to all the stimulation these centres provide and my system just couldn't cope. Add to that dragging around a toddler and a baby (and a reluctant husband) and shopping started to lose its attractive shine. Have you noticed how stores like Target are NOT made for people pushing prams? They have stuff everywhere - especially during Toy Sales (okay, overwhelmed or not, I still can't resist a good toy sale).

I discovered that the less I shopped, the less I felt like shopping. And of course, with a house overflowing with stuff (a result of too many "buy as much as you can" shopping trips), really the need for shopping was gradually diminishing.

That's a good thing right? Less shopping, less money spent, less stuff. Everyone is happy. Mmmm. That worked for a while until some very sneaky little temptations snuck into my life..... Catalogue shopping, party plan shopping (combining my love of socialising with my love of shopping) and INTERNET shopping.

I've discovered the same thing with these types of shopping. The less time you spend shopping (and/or browsing), the less tempting these things are. But once you start.... oh oh.

I think that's what has happened to me this month. Sure, I've done well with the grocery spending. Not so well on the rest of my spending though. The shopaholic bug hit me square in the hip pocket. Sure, I can justify my purchases.... but it's still money that's gone from my bank account to someone else's.

It all started with a Tupperware party that my MIL had. I didn't go but have been wanting a few extra bits for my pantry. Then I discovered they had a set on sale for 20% off. Seemed like a reasonable purchase. Tupperware doesn't come on sale all that often and who knows how much longer I'll have before my choice of lid colour gets taken out of the range. And it does keep food fresh for so much longer so potentially less wastage of food happening. So, $130 later.... more Tupperware.

What was next? Well, my counsellor has been encouraging me to find some kind of hobby. Something I enjoy doing. Not something that's easy to find time for with 3 young children. But kind of important to my recovery. I'd been eye-ing off a few things in the Fox Collection catalogue so decided to bite the bullet and go ahead and order a few things. While I'm ordering and paying the freight, might as well get a few extra things and make it worthwhile. So, $120 later.....

Then I was invited to a Stampin Up party. A fundraiser for our local hospital. Pretty worthy cause I thought. I haven't been doing much socialising lately and the person putting on the party was a friend.... Went along, had a good time. Could definitely see this as part of my recovery. Mmmmm....so many nice things I could buy to add to my hobby. Plus I want to start scrapbooking and could really see a use for these things with doing that. So, another $130 later.....

Simple Savings is a great place for me to learn new ways of saving money. I love reading the forums and joining in there. One of the posts mentioned a really good deal on a food processor from dstore. And only $1 freight as well. I've been putting off replacing my food processor that died. We've been grating our cheese by hand and I had made enough breadcrumbs in the old one that we're only just now running out. With the extra cooking I've been doing from scratch I could really use an appliance like that and it was such a good deal.... another $65.95 later....

On the topic of the forums, I read another post about some websites that are a bit like clearance places where you can get some really good deals. The deal of that particular day was basically a mystery box for $20. Sounded like a bit of fun. They send you 6 items and you have no idea what they'll be but they guarantee the retail value will be around $100. What the heck, I was having a spending month so another $20 wasn't going to be very noticable. Surely there'd be something in there I could use for a gift or donate when we're asked for something for a raffle basket. Kind of an adult lucky dip I thought. Heck, just the fun and suspense of it all was sure to be worth the $20. Add on a bit of postage.... nearly $30 later.... Hmmm, wasn't simple savings supposed to be helping me save money...at the moment it's sure helping me spend it. LOL.

Off to the dentist and can't get within 20 minutes of shops without going shopping can I? Into Kmart.... some new jeans for DS (well that really was a necessary purchase), a few more things for my new scrapbooking venture, need some wool to try out the knifty knitter I bought from fox collection, who knows what else I bought. Another $130 later....

By this time my knifty knitter has arrived and I've tried it out and quite liked it. During 2 TV shows I've made myself a new scarf for the grand total of $2.50. Wow....this is very exciting and could be a great hobby that will actually *save* us money (over time of course). BUT....need some more wool. It's not too easy to find around here. Simple Savings to the rescue - several sites recommended that I could buy wool online from. Another $100 later...... It's going to take some real knifty knitting to recoup that spending.... :-)

LOL. I guess you get the picture. I'm not really saying I regret any of my purchases (I just justified them all didn't I?). But what I did notice as the month wore on, the more money I spent, the easier it became to spend and justify purchases. I've just added those amounts up and we're talking just over $700 of non-necessity based purchases in the space of a month!!! I have actually omitted from mentioning a few "necessary" purchases that were also made. So much for having a low spending year! I guess my next challenge will be to put some of these things to use so that we at least get some value for money from my spending spree.

And I'll have to work my way back to getting more used to NOT spending money so that spending seems more foreign again. That way it becomes harder to SPEND money rather than harder NOT to spend money.

Stretching the Beef

I tried something today that I've not tried before (at least I don't think I have - not sure how reliable my memory is at the moment). On Tuesday I cooked Roast Beef in the Slow Cooker. It's one of our more "decadent" meals - costing a little more than some of our other meals. That's not the bit that I haven't tried before. :-) Read on....

I left the juices in the slow cooker overnight to set and yesterday scraped off the fat from the top, added a kettle full of water, turned the slow cooker back on and .... ended up with beef stock. Don't laugh. It might sound obvious to some of you but it's something new for me (you'll have to humour me here). I added some soup mix last night and cooked that for a while. Then this morning I added some chopped carrot, celery, onion, potato and sweet potato (basically put in what I had on hand). I did add a single serve sachet of hearty beef soup that was in the cupboard (what I bought it for I have no idea so using it up seemed like a good idea) and a spoonful of minced garlic for extra flavour.

Then today when I was chopping up the leftover meat to make into a shepherd's pie, I threw in a few bits of the meat as well. Mmmmm.... I've just had some and it's very nice (even if I do say so myself lol).

I'm feeling pretty happy about the outcome of this experiment (which is an improvement on the outcome of some of my other experiments of late). Out of one piece of roast beef I usually try to get 2 meals (3 if it's a bigger piece). With the soup, I now have 3 meals plus some lunches. Plus 2 feeds of scraps for the cat.

Finding ways to stretch meat that little bit further and make use of as much as possible (minimising waste) is one of the most effective ways I've found to cut our food budget down.

Final Grocery shop for June

Well I spent $18.77 on groceries today. Wasn't in need of much after a stock up last week (plus some free pumpkin we were kindly given on Sunday). That brings my total spend for the month of June to $399.46. How's that for just scraping in under $400! :-) My average spend so far this year is now $99.93 per week.

What will July bring? Dunno yet. Only 4 Wednesdays again in July so if I want to continue my challenge I need to keep spending under $400 again. School Holidays may be a challenge as the kids often eat more during the holidays than they do at school. I don't mind a challenge though so we'll see how we go.

Little Miss Forgetful

I was about to write a blog post and got sidetracked with some emails and responding to some comments from yesterdays posts and now I can't remember what I was going to post about. LOL. Not sure if that's a sign of old age. I know they say you lose some of your memory having children (plus the complications they bring to life and the number of things you have to remember). I've also found the depression has affected my memory (and brain capacity in general) - although things are slowly improving as I recover. I've always had a good memory and relied on it so it's thrown me a bit the fact that I now forget things so easily.

On the topic of forgetting things - yesterday my children had school photo's. I diligently wrote it on the calendar and ordered new school jumpers for them to wear for the photo's (ours fade very quickly and look terrible). Then promptly forgot all about it. DD was home sick yesterday so she completely missed out. Fortunately DS happened to be wearing his better school uniform so that's something. Oh well, what's done is done.

On the Subject of Giving

Ooh...2 posts from me today. :-)

My beautiful 6 year old daughter has just written a song that I wanted to share.

MY LOVE SONG

I Love You
I Love You
Oh I do
I Love You Mum
I Love You Dad

I Love You
I Love You
Oh I do
I Love You Mum
I Love You Dad

I Love You
I Love You
Oh I do

Isn't that beautiful? And she just sang it to me. Kids are so willing when it comes to giving and receiving aren't they. :-)

I Love Surprises!!!

Last night my counsellor arrived bearing gifts. That took me by surprise. A lovely gift basket with some nice pampering type things in it. Some kind person had donated some money to her organisation for people on the land doing it tough at the moment. It was a lovely gift basket full of the kinds of things you perhaps wouldn't buy when money is tight (shower gel, hand cream and all kinds of things). It felt like my birthday had come a week early. :-) A complete stranger (well I'm making the assumption it's a stranger) gave something of theirs (money) without any consideration of thanks or praise (anonymously) to someone they know nothing about (other than that they're on the farm and farming hasn't been real great these past few years). It's kind of mind blowing really. At least to me it is.

It got me thinking about giving and receiving. I'm not very good at receiving at times. Often I feel undeserving for one reason or another. I wouldn't want anyone else to miss out on my account. And yet in order to give people the blessing that comes from giving, someone has to receive. I've decided I need to work on being able to receive graciously.

Then comes the giving side of a coin. How amazing is it when we receive something that we don't deserve - or something completely unexpected. It brings with it a really special feeling of warmth and caring. So this week I'm going to consider what I can do to give to someone else "just because". Not necessarily anything big or expensive but something to let them know I'm thinking of them and want to bring a smile to their face. Will have to think some more on this one as to who and what.

Wouldn't the world be a wonderful place if we all took the attitude of giving to one another out of love rather than out of obligation? And if we were more willing to accept things graciously (without the - what's in this for them type suspicion we sometimes have).

I would love to begin each day with the thought - what can I do today to bring a smile to someone's face?