pickle post

awesome salad

based on my favourite vietnamese flavours, this salad is a serious meal and can be eaten over two sittings. all ingredients can be increased/decreased/omitted according to taste, diet and seasonality. make the dressing first, then pour over the veggies. can be served with rice.

dressing

120ml tamari/soy sauce (or vegetarian fish sauce, which i've heard of but not yet seen)

50g/3tbs palm or brown sugar

30ml sesame oil

juice and finely grated zest of two limes (lemon can be used for up to half of this)

2cm piece of ginger, finely grated

3 cloves garlic, crushed

finely chopped fresh chillis/hot chilli sauce to taste

splash of water

mix all ingredients in a bowl: adjust seasoning to taste.

500g firm tofu/cold roasted chicken/other

garlic powder/seasoning

.25 small cabbage (chinese cabbage is best)

4 medium carrots

200g bean shoots (2-3 big handfuls)

1 tomato/10 cherry tomatoes

1 bunch mint

1 bunch coriander

100g roasted unsalted nuts (peanuts and cashews are the best)

100g package mung bean vermicelli (glass noodles)

if using, cut the tofu into 1-2cm cubes. sprinkle with garlic powder or other dry seasoning, shallow fry in oil until crunchy, and set aside.

soak the vermicelli in a bowl of recently boiled water for about 2 minutes. stir, then drain.

grate cabbage and carrots into small-medium pieces. coarsely chop the mint and coriander. arrange these, the bean shoots, sliced tomato, nuts and vermicelli on a large serving platter (a large, shallow bowl of at least 30cm diametre is good). put the tofu/other on top, and pour dressing over.

serve sprinkled with these:

soap making class @ceres!

pouring the lye solution into the melted fats/oil

went to a fantastic workshop today at ceres environment park in brunswick: soap making! the instructor was great; knowledgeable and enthusiastic. it was also really exciting to meet so many lovely and like-minded people in the group!

we were sitting under the grape vines in the market area near the chickens, and had a few of the girls *brrt*bgrkbk-brrr-b-grk*ing around under our feet while we grated, melted and stirred the soap. i even had a chookie fall asleep in my lap at one point!

it was a really beautiful spring day; cool enough to be pleasant, plenty of sun to create plenty of shade. i even heard frogs in the pond!

felted wool scarf

recycling 100% wool clothing is easy- felt it! machine wash in hot soapy water, rinse in hot, and tumble dry in hot. most items should shrink like crazy when given this treatment (though each piece will shrink differently due to different wool type, weave, assembly, previous use and treatment- some may shrink very little, and can be donated to charity :)

you'll know your felt is ok to cut without unravelling when you can't differentiate between individual strands, or stretch the weave much.

i cut about 30 circles of each colour in different sizes (2-12cm diametre), but cut more later to add in specific places for strength and visual appeal. straight or zigzag sew the first two circles together slightly overlapping: pause your sewing with the needle down, and add in another overlapping circle and so on. turn over once you get to the desired length, and sew back to the start (adding reinforcing circles if necessary)

voila! the rebirth of my most favourite, uber-fluffy pink italian angora sweater!

funky onion tote

upcycled onion bag with crocheted plastic shopping bag handle 

reinforced with fishing line and love for the planet, this baby harnesses the indestructability of plastic and multiplies it by BRIGHT ORANGE, plus a cute blue bow.

available for sale soon!

blue folded flower for wendy

my lovely colleague wendy has left for another job; here is her farewell from me.

recycled catalogue packaging

nectarine blossoms