Ceiling Fans review...cut the costs of cooling your home and make life more comfortable

Many years ago we lived in the lush, beautiful tropical town of Kununurra, Western Australia. Just about every room in every house there had ceiling fans, and we loved them. Seven years ago we bought our house here in Adelaide, South Australia, and every summer we said "one day we'll get ceiling fans installed." Well,last November that one day came. We decided it was high time to get it done, it wasn't going to get any easier or cheaper.

We contacted an electrician that we had used before to ask what ceiling fans he would recommend and quote for installation. He told us where he gets the fans from and which one he thought we should get so that we could go to their showroom and have a look. So we went and had a look at the Lucci Futura Eco Series fans and the lady in the shop was very helpful. We went and had a look in other fan shops, but the sales assistants didn't seem interested in trying to make a sale, their display wasn't as good or they didn't know as much about the product. We went back to the original shop (the name of the shop escapes me at the moment!) and spoke to the same sales assistant and had a few more questions answered.

We decided the Lucci Futura would be good for the bedrooms. They have three speeds and a light fitting that looked reasonably nice. As we have a low pitch roof with no crawl space the electrician would be unable to get into the roof to install wiring. The fans could be installed where there was a light fitting already, without having to get into the roof space. However, we had to go with using a remote control instead of a switch on the wall. We opted to go for the Lucci LCD Fan Remote Control (Series No. SKU 210013) as it has a temperature control and timer function. We thought this would be handy for the bedrooms as we could set the temperature and the fan speed automatically adjusts according to the temperature of the room. When the temperature drops to match the temperature you have set it at, it stays at low speed to maintain the temperature. If it drops below, it automatically switches off, and only switches back on again if the room warms up. That would mean we wouldn't have kids calling out in the middle of the night that they are cold and could we please switch their fans off!

So that was the bedrooms sorted out, but for the lounge room and dining room we wanted a fan with a really slow low speed. There is nothing worse than sitting at the dining table enjoying your meal but getting a thudding from the fan blowing air on you. The Lucci Airfusion Climate II DC ceiling fan has speeds, with the lowest being so low it feels more like a gentle breeze or slight airflow you would get from having a window open, rather than a fan on. Much more pleasant for sitting directly under when eating your dinner. A remote control is included, so we didn't need to get them as an extra. Another advantage of the DC fan is how efficient they are...on the slowest speed they use 4 watts. You can get them with a light fitting, but we weren't going to need that for the lounge room and dining room, as we didn't want the fans where the lights were.

We only had to wait two weeks for the electrician (Robertson Brothers) to come and do a very professional job of installing them. Oh, I've just remembered the name of the fan shop, Beacon Lighting at Mile End. Robertson Bros supplied and installed all 5 fans and remotes for $2,200.00. I thought that was very reasonable, given the difficulties in installation. If you were to go for switches instead of remotes for the Futura fans, you would save more, as the Lucci LCD remotes are $100 each,

It's funny how things look differently installed at home than they do in the showroom. In the show room we preferred the look of the Futura fans to the DC ones, but once installed, thought the DC ones looked fantastic and blended in really well with the house, while the Futura ones looked a bit old fashioned. Nonetheless, we are extremely impressed with our choice in fans and remote controls.

This summer we have hardly used our air conditioner. Instead, we have used the fans a lot, keeping the house at a comfortable temperature both day and night. We have solar panels and consequently don't get electricity bills, but it will be interesting to see how much our usage is compared to previous summers at the end of this one.

The new fans are so quiet, sometimes you forget that they are on, except for the feeling of a breeze inside the house!

Two in one recipe: Peach and rockmelon juice and peach, rockmelon and passionfruit sorbet - egg free, dairy free

I have a juicer which is great but I find that, during the process of extracting juice, there is a lot of pulp left behind. I don't want to waste the perfectly good fruit pulp, so the other day when I made this Peach and Rockmelon juice, I used the pulp left over to make a very yummy sorbet.

For the juice:

1/2 rockmelon (cantaloupe)
4 peaches
2 oranges
1 tablespoon lime juice

Juice the fruit according to the instructions for your juicer. For example, I have a different attachment for doing 'fleshy' fruits like the peaches and rockmelons and another attachment for juicing citrus fruits. Months ago I juiced a heap of limes and put them in the ice cube trays in the freezer. I picked out enough cubes of frozen lime juice to make about 1 tablespoon and added them to the rest of the juice.

For the sorbet:

Collect the pulp of the peaches and rockmelons from the juicer.

In a saucepan, place 1 cup of sugar to 1 cup of water and slowly bring to a boil until sugar has dissolved. Put aside to cool completely.
Once cool, stir into the pulp along with some passionfruit pulp and seeds (or omit if you don't like passionfruit).
Place into a shallow freezer proof plastic container and freeze. After a few hours (when it is almost frozen solid), pull out and beat, then place back into the container and freeze again. If you leave it longer (I left mine for two days!) and it is frozen solid when you pull it out to beat it, just let it sit at room temperature until it softens.

Many sorbet recipes say to whip raw egg whites into frozen mixture when beating it. With two young kids in the house I wasn't keen on using raw eggs, so left them out.

Last night we tried the sorbet and it got the thumbs up from everyone. My husband was impressed that it was so tasty, and bar the cup of sugar, was relatively healthy.

Peach, plum and fig smoothie - dairy free

The best things in life are free and free fruit can't be beaten. I made a delicious smoothie from some 'free' fruit that we had - yellow peaches that we had growing in our garden plus some our neighbours gave to us, white flesh peaches that a friend gave us, plums from the next door neighbour and some figs a neighbour that I only met today while walking past his house and striking up a conversation about his fig tree. I peeled the peaches and chopped them roughly, chopped the plums and the figs and blended these all until smooth. (My mum would love this as she has extolled the virtues of her Nutribullet to me in a previous conversation!). I also added some lime juice that I had frozen from limes given to us by the same friend who gave us the white flesh peaches...I don't know if I would add limes again, the flavour didn't quite go with the other fruits. You could change the amounts of each fruit to your own taste, but I did 2 x white flesh peaches, 1 x yellow flesh (Million Dollar variety) peach, 1 x fig and 1 x plum.

It was absolutely delicious an soooooo refreshing. I could have used my juicer instead of the blender, but I really wanted the advantage of having the fibre in the drink rather than just the juice.

Getting zapped from your trampoline mat? An easy solution to stop getting static shocks from trampolines

We recently got our kids a second hand trampoline, but were disappointed when they jumped on it and started to get static shocks from it. Consequently our son now refuses to jump on what he described as the best present ever when we gave it to him. So my husband did some research on the internet to find a solution.

He found an easy and effective solution was to dilute fabric softener in water to the approximate ratio of one part fabric softener to 10 parts water. Put it in a spray bottle and spray evenly over the trampoline mat. Allow to dry.

This certainly fixed the problem for us, although needs to be reapplied after rain as it washes it away.

From what we've read, this seems to happen with nylon trampoline mats. We were disappointed as we were told it was a good quality, made in the USA mat. We may eventually replace it with a good quality made in Australia mat, and see if that makes a difference.

Until then, we will keep up with the fabric softener solution.

2014 Pauline's year in review

Another year has passed and I find myself reflecting on what I have achieved this year towards my goals of living a little more frugally while not compromising on quality of life, treading lightly on the earth and reducing waste.

I'll start off with my garden. In 2014 from my garden I picked: zucchini, basil, spinach, cherry tomatoes, tomatoes, parsley, rockmelon, pumpkin, lemons, lettuce, capsicum, mint, olives, eggplant, oranges, thyme, cos lettuce, leeks, carrots, mushrooms, snow peas, silverbeet, chives, garlic chives, pineapple sage, peas, coriander, beans, lemon verbena, red onions and plums. We didn't get any apples off our tree this year. The total amount of produce picked from our garden this year is 235.8kg, up from 125.6kg in 2013 and 104kg in 2012. This year I planted passionfruit so it will be a few years before that produces. Also last year I planted asparagus, so should hopefully start getting some off that next spring. We also planted a peach tree which has fruit on it and will hopefully be eating them in the next month or so. We also have a fig tree but it hasn't produced fruit yet.

I read a bit more about gardening tips including companion gardening. After three years of having a vegie patch, I have noticed the favourite spot in the garden for the basil...in the dappled shade from the next door neighbours peach tree. I also discovered that the coriander likes to be near the tomatoes and in the dappled shade of the lemon tree. I planted one coriander in the ground and it was going so well in that spot I moved the ones I had in pots to the same area and they thrived.

I have been noticing how much of our food comes in packaging and trying to cut down. I no longer buy pre-packaged carrots, but buy them loose and take my own plastic bag to put them in. Having said that, my favourite fruit and veg shop had all their peaches and nectarines in plastic containers this year that weren't particularly reusable or recyclable, which was disappointing. Hopefully next year we will have our own peaches and not need to buy so many.

This year I made my own dishcloths from old towels and scrap material and they have worked out really well. I am endeavouring to make more clothes for my family this year.

I hadn't updated this blog for about two years until one of the Channel 7 producers came across it while surfing the internet. The next thing I know I'm on television on the Today Tonight Adelaide show under the title of Urban Farmers. For some time afterwards hits on this blog skyrocketed but have slowed down a bit now.

With a 5 year old and an almost 2 year old, there doesn't seem to be a lot of time for making things by hand to reduce waste and live frugally. However, as the kids get older I have more time, so expect to be able to do a bit more this year, especially as my oldest starts school this year.

Thanks to all my friends who tell my of how I have inspired them to plant something in their gardens or go back to making things like candied peel themselves instead of buying products. And thanks to my Facebook followers who have spurred me on to greater things.

I don't tend to make new years resolutions as I'm not good at sticking to them, but I will continue on this journey and will post onto this blog when I get a moment. I hope you all have a great 2015!

Dairy free lasagna

When my daughter was an infant, she was diagnosed as being Cows Milk Protein Intolerant. She grew out of it at about 18 months of age, but for what seemed an eternity (as I love my dairy) I was making dairy free meals and snacks. A few days ago I made this for a friend who thinks that her newborn baby may also be cow milk protein intolerant.

I'm not going to reinvent the wheel here by giving a full recipe for making lasagna, as it's really only the white sauce that is different from ordinary lasagna. So make the sauce for the lasagna the usual way.

When making the white sauce, substitute the butter or margarine for a non-dairy alternative, such as Nuttelex. You can also substitute the milk for rice milk. I tried using oat milk and almond milk but found rice milk to be the best. Note that as the soy protein and cows milk protein are very similar in structure, so often people who are cows milk protein intolerant are also soy protein intolerant, so don't use soy milk if that is the case for you.

30g Nuttelex
2 or 3 tablespoons plain flour
350ml rice milk

Melt the butter. Add the plain flour, stir until combined and "cook out" the flour (the flour will go pale in colour). Add the milk slowly and stir until there are no lumps. Cook until mixture thickens. You may find this takes longer to thicken than ordinary white sauce and even when it has thickened I find it is still a bit watery. I do this process in a microwave safe jug and it takes about 7 minutes.

Layer the lasagna in the usual way. I put a thin layer of white sauce in the middle layer of mine and then put the rest on top. As there is no cheese in this recipe, to give the topping a bit colour I sprinkle on some paprika.

I won't look as yummy as ordinary lasagna but will still taste good.

Best ever Christmas Fruit Mince Pie recipe

I know it's a bit late, now that Christmas has passed, but I finally have a few minutes to type up the Fruit Mince Pie recipe that I make. It's actually a combination of two recipes. The fruit mince is my mum's recipe and the pastry is a Maggie Beer recipe that I got from the Women's Weekly magazine. For years I used a different pastry recipe, but found this one had the right amount of "crumble". I love a crumbly pastry on my fruit mince pies...not too crumbly but not too leathery either.

The fruit mince recipe makes a lot of fruit mince, much more than the pastry recipe does. I would recommend either making 3 times the pastry recipe if you want to use all the fruit mince or, alternatively, freeze the fruit mince so you can make some more pies later on and that way you always have fresh fruit mince pies available.

So here goes, shame I didn't take a photo of them before they were all eaten up!


Pastry

1.5 cups (225g) unbleached plain flour
half cup (75g) self raising flour
one third cup (55g) icing sugar
150g cold butter, chopped
1 free-range egg yolk
2.5 tablespoons iced water

Process the flours, icing sugar and butter in a food processor until well combined and the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add the egg yolk and iced water and process using the pulse function until the mixture starts to come together. I find that at this stage it is quite crumbly and I need to bring it together by hand. Shape the pastry into a disc and wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.


Fruit Mince

1 grated apple
grated rind and juice of 1 lemon
125grams chopped dried apricots
1 cup sultanas
1 cup currants
1 cup sugar
half cup water

Place all ingredients into saucepan. Slowly bring to boil. Simmer for 10 minutes or until liquid has reduced to a thick syrup. If it is too watery, it will make the pastry soggy. Allow to cool before filling in the pastry cases.

Pre-heat the oven to 210 degrees celcius (approx 420 degrees F if you have an old oven like me!). Roll out the pastry until 3mm thick. Using a biscuit or scone cutter, cut circles large enough to cover the base of your muffin tray. Don't forget to prepare your muffin tray first if necesary. Line the holes with pastry circles and put spoonfuls of the filling in the cases. Cut slightly smaller circles in the pastry and place these lids on top of the pie filling, pressing down on the edges to bring it together. Cut a cross into the tops of the pies to let the steam out.

Bake for about 12 minutes or until the pastry is golden brown. All to cool in the trays and serve dusted with icing sugar.

These are absolutely delicious. The pastry recipe has been copied from the Australian Women's Weekly magazine, November 2012 edition.