RustyRaven
@RustyRaven@aussie.zone
Interested in sewing, gardening and preserving, with a strong focus on sustainability.
- Comment on Discussion Thread 🪿 Sunday 1 March 2026 4 hours ago:
How does tempura manage to be so simple and still be so yummy?
- Comment on Discussion Thread 🪿 Sunday 1 March 2026 7 hours ago:
I made a chicken casserole for the freezer and the chicken pieces shrunk a lot more than expected. So I ended up with less serves than I was expecting and a lot of excess gravy. I’ve frozen the gravy seperately, it should work well as a gravy to pour over a pan-fried piece of chicken, so I guess it wasn’t too disapointing.
- Comment on Discussion Thread 🪿 Sunday 1 March 2026 10 hours ago:
I think it’s available at 45 but they don’t send it unsolicited until 50? I just did my ‘welcome to 50!’ bowel screening, and the nice thing about having that out of the way is that I no longer have to go to the toilet thinking ‘poo! I should save that for science!’
- Comment on Discussion Thread 🪿 Sunday 1 March 2026 11 hours ago:
I’m glad I got my mulching done when I did, working outside in this humidity is pretty icky. I’m trying to chip away at the rest of the work a little bit at a time but it’s definitely not the weather for sustained effort.
- Comment on Discussion Thread 🪿 Sunday 1 March 2026 11 hours ago:
I have evaporative cooling, so on warm nights I generally leave the fan on and have the window open to keep the air moving through. The bed fan is nice because it blows air under the covers (which is a very light cotton doona - I can’t sleep uncovered) and it has a remote control, so if I wake up too warm I can turn it on/up without moving. It also helps to remove moisture from the bed so it doesn’t feel quite so sticky.
- Comment on Discussion Thread 🪿 Sunday 1 March 2026 12 hours ago:
My bed fan was on all night, it helps to reduce the stickiness a bit.
- Comment on Discussion Thread 🪿 Sunday 1 March 2026 13 hours ago:
Many years ago I started making porridge mix and putting it into individual serving containers so I could take it to work. Then I decided that microwaving porridge was too messy so only make it at home now. But I’ve continued putting it in individual containers, and it’s only just occured to me now that it would be much easier to make it in a big container and measure it as needed 🤦♀️
So, once the three containers I have now are used up I’m changing to a big container instead, which will reduce my porridge hassle factor considerably.
- Comment on Discussion Thread 🪿 Sunday 1 March 2026 14 hours ago:
🫂
You might feel like you don’t know how to process what has happened, but what you are doing is processing it. Busy work is a way to distract your conscious mind and give your subconscious the room to process - your conscious thoughts might grab all the attention, but it is the subconscious that does all the real heavy lifting.
The grief of loss is extremely painful to go through, but Melbcat loved you and was loved in return. Death cannot take that away, and moving from present to past does not diminish it. The time you had together and the relationship you had will always be there, you are just viewing it from a different angle.
- Comment on Discussion Thread 🪿 Sunday 1 March 2026 15 hours ago:
A prawn cocktail, a chicken burger and a sickly-sweet and gelatinous cheesecake, please.
- Comment on Discussion Thread 🦉 Saturday 28 February 2026 1 day ago:
I don’t think I could choose between them.
- Comment on Discussion Thread 🦉 Saturday 28 February 2026 1 day ago:
Mountain
- Comment on Discussion Thread 🦉 Saturday 28 February 2026 1 day ago:
Temu. It seems fairly robust, although not as good quality as my other small (lidless) tin I got for $3.50 from and op shop years ago. I know exactly how much that one cost because they wrote the price directly onto the tin with a permanent marker that lived up to its name and never came off 🤣
- Comment on Discussion Thread 🦉 Saturday 28 February 2026 1 day ago:
This one is great because it is small enough to fit inside my toaster oven, and with the top on I don’t need to worry about the dough rising too high and hitting the top. It should be a perfect fit for the pre-sliced cheese which is very handy too. Being able to finish one loaf in the toaster oven also meant I could start a fruit loaf while that one was finishing rising/cooking.
I think my next step is to sit down with a calculator and work out some different recipe sizes. The 400g is great for a small loaf in the breadmaker, but a touch too big for this tin and makes 5 rolls, when either 4 or 6 would work better. Its a good time to do it, as I’ve just used the last of my pre-measured 400g containers.
- Comment on Discussion Thread 🦉 Saturday 28 February 2026 1 day ago:
Just a fraction too much dough.
Next time I think 350g instead of 400g flour to start and see how that goes.
- Comment on Discussion Thread 🦉 Saturday 28 February 2026 1 day ago:
I’m testing my new sandwich loaf tin (the type with a lid to keep it square). I think I might have used too much dough, but it’s hard to tell when you can’t actually see how much it has risen. I guess I’ll find out in about half an hour!
- Comment on Discussion Thread 🦉 Saturday 28 February 2026 1 day ago:
Mine went in very late, then they grew really slowly but are now covered with fruit. I’m just not sure I’ll get much in the way of ripe tomatoes or if I should just plan for a ton of green tomato pickles.
- Comment on Discussion Thread 🦉 Saturday 28 February 2026 1 day ago:
I’ve just done a pumpkin headcount and (depending on how many are properly fertilised and continue to grow) it looks like I could end up with a dozen pumpkins this year. That’s a lot of pumpkin for a single person. Hopefully they don’t get too big.
There are also a lot of fruit on the tomato plants, but I still don’t have any ripening.
- Comment on Discussion Thread 🐬 Friday 27 February 2026 2 days ago:
Always fresh vegetables. The sauce I usually do is a base of stock powder and tapioca flour (which could be substituted with cornflour) mixed with water. I’ll pretty much always add a little bit of soy, sesame oil and fresh ginger. Then a selection of oyster sauce, sweet chilli sauce or cooking wine depending on what I feel like, plus extra ingredients to give specific flavours - like the black pepper and honey tonight.
- Comment on Discussion Thread 🐬 Friday 27 February 2026 2 days ago:
The power failure was a good chance for me to test the UPS I just bought. I identified two problems. The first was that I’d plugged the NBN box into it, but not the actual modem. So that was at least an easy fix.
The second problem was that the UPS is set to have a really loud intermittent beep when it runs on battery backup. Mr Woof evacuated to the backyard to avoid it and it was slowly driving me batty too. I did some research and found that it could be turned off, but you have to download software and connect it to the computer. So I downloaded the software, installed and connected everything, and it wouldn’t open the interface. I could get to the menu options but the one I needed was greyed out. Eventually I decided it might be because I’m using Windows 11 and it only listed up to 10 in its compatibility list. Running in compatibility mode didn’t work, so I dug out my old laptop, downloaded the program onto that and it worked perfectly. So the infernal beeps have now been silenced and I have uninterupted internet available.
- Comment on Discussion Thread 🐬 Friday 27 February 2026 2 days ago:
Oh dear, the power has gone out. It looks to be a big area.
- Comment on Discussion Thread 🐬 Friday 27 February 2026 2 days ago:
Stir-fry was my staple meal when I moved out of home, I’d have it probably 4-5 times a week. Very affordable on student benefits - lots of rice and veg, a little bit of meat.
- Comment on Discussion Thread 🐬 Friday 27 February 2026 2 days ago:
Stir-fry is ready
- Comment on Discussion Thread 🐬 Friday 27 February 2026 2 days ago:
When I used to commute it was all books or the free newspaper (or the not free papers in the morning). Of course at that time I had the trendy little flip phone whose main selling point was polyphonic ring tones, so the entertainment value of that was pretty limited.
- Comment on Discussion Thread 🐬 Friday 27 February 2026 2 days ago:
Rightyho, I have now ordered 2 oil bottles for the kitchen, a couple of tops, a couple of flat sheets and the frost protection covers that were already in my cart. $56 total. Hopefully the sheets are at least halfway decent. I could do with some more, but don’t want to spend too much because Mr Woof keeps tearing them.
- Comment on Discussion Thread 🐬 Friday 27 February 2026 2 days ago:
Pakige arrived. Mostly ok, but a couple of returns have been organised. Now I also have a $28 voucher that needs to be spent in 3 days, and only $8 worth sitting in my cart. Time to do some quality impulse buying - and worst case scenario I buy something to get to the $40 minimum spend and then return it. Ah, Temu. How you make any money is beyond me.
- Comment on Discussion Thread 🐬 Friday 27 February 2026 2 days ago:
I have now been to the doctor for a checkup, been poked, prodded and bled, plus I have 2 more appointments to make for more specialised prodding. My special ‘welcome to 50 years’ celebration 🤣.
The doctor seemed nice, and much more interested than the previous one I went to. Plus it was fully bulk billed, and I have some insurance that will give me a discount for having regular checkups so it’s worth it from a financial perspective alone.
- Comment on Discussion Thread 🐬 Friday 27 February 2026 2 days ago:
In the absence of any context or knowledge of your family I am going to guess he needs to break it to you that he’s moving to Florida to marry a hooker he met in an online chat room.
- Comment on Discussion Thread 🐬 Friday 27 February 2026 2 days ago:
I’m so sorry to hear that. 🫂
- Comment on Discussion Thread 🐬 Friday 27 February 2026 2 days ago:
I always treat myself to nice meals! For breakfast I’ve got overnight oats with fresh nectarine and yoghurt, dinner is a beef stir fry (I’m thinking honey pepper, maybe) and I have yet to decide on lunch. Either a salad with salmon cakes or a toastie most likely.
- Comment on Discussion Thread 🐬 Friday 27 February 2026 2 days ago:
It’s like the childhood Christmas stockings where mum would buy lots of little cheap things just to fill it up.
