Or Dinner Perhaps?

 What to cook for dinner... That's always a dilemma.

But I had been longing to get back in my bus, light my Little
Cracker and get back into fire top cooking in my cast iron pot.

 So what could be better at this very cold time of the year

than a hot chunky curried vegetable soup...

I used the vegetables I had... Chopped onion, garlic, carrot,

pumpkin, swede, celery... Added a good amount of hot curry

powder, some cumin and cardamon powder... A tin of chopped

tomatoes with a bit of added water... A shake from the chilli

flakes jar... And there you are... Oh and lots of tumeric...

And it's on to cook for the day.

Towards the end I added a couple of handfuls of raisins...

Adjusted the seasonings...

 And it's dinner time... It's cooked and ready...

Sometimes I put shredded chicken, or cooked then sliced

sausages or fillet steak and a big spoon of 'soup' over the top...

But this time it's served as soup... A spoonful of

spicy fruit chutney on top. Delicious... More anyone?

My Little Cracker... A Dream Come True

Here is my new fire... A 'Little Cracker' enclosed multi burner.
I have envied other people for long enough...
The time finally came.
I am so excited to have it and be really warm.
This is 10 minutes after the installation was finished...

The kettle is on...
I had been gathering firewood at Uretiti while I was waiting
for the fire to be freighted from Canterbury.
I bought a bag of coal... And a bucket and shovel...
Some fire lighters... I don't bother with paper...
A couple of trivets...

And dinner is cooking...
My little Bedford feels like a real home now .

It was so exciting watching it get installed.
I had been without heating for about six weeks...
My heater failed and I decided not to repair it.
So I had been rather cold sometimes.
Here it is in position, sightly off centre
to give more room coming in the door.

The spot on the ceiling was marked... After making sure the bus
was level, dropping a plumbline and much measuring...
The flue hole was cut from the inside. 
The dilemma was... Was it going to rain as soon as the hole was cut.

Then from the outside... You can see the rain clouds approaching...
And rain it did.

The chimney cowl was put on, the sealant wouldn't
stick or dry... So work came to a halt...

Next day after lunch The sun was out...
Work resumes... The flue was dropped down...

The fireplace sitting on a fire retardant block
and bolted to the floor.

The flue on the roof had a seal put around it and screwed to the roof.
Since this picture the flu was cut down to 10mm above the cowl.

And here it is... Ready to go...

The first match is struck... And a new life begins.

Another Extraordinary Day In Paradise...

When I do a big shop to re-stock my fridge...
I trim and wash my fruit and veges before storing them.
(Soak for 1/2 hour in 1/4 cup of malt vinegar in a sink of water
I have a small sink. This helps to neutralize and remove toxic sprays.)
Leave in a rack or I put them on a tea towel on the bench, to dry.
They are then ready to eat and cook with and take less room in my fridge.
This week I was horrified at the price of fresh veges...
So decided I would keep all the bits I would usually throw away...
The very tops of the celery stalks, the bottom of the asparagus spears, the dark green tops of the leeks,
the thick stalks from the broccoli... I did  peel these!
I thought nothing would be lost if I tried making them into a soup...
So I added a chopped onion, grated carrot and 1/2 cup brown lentils...

Put them all in the pot with some gluten free chicken stock...
And boiled them up for a couple of hours.
I then added a tin of tomatoes, some chilli, fish sauce, cumin...
Whizzed it up with my stick - that I have told you before
I can now run through my recently installed 2000watt inverter.

And... Delicious fresh vege soup...
Garnished with flat leaf parsley...
From my garden pots on the back of my bus...
And lunch was served

 

After lunch I went gathering firewood with a friend 

who has a tiny 'Little Cracker' 

 wood burning fire in his house-bus.

I am thinking about installing one before next winter...

So want to consider what is involved in... 

Finding, chopping and storing wood.

 
There is plenty of dry wood to be found at Uretiti...
A  lot of Pine trees were cut down
and left to rot away in the sand dunes.
Big wood, small branches and pine cones... Lots of them all.


We walked back to the bus with our haul...
My friend has an outside workbench and small device for
holding the branches against...
While he cuts them up with his amazing sharp little saw.
I have concluded I could do all this...
To have the ambience, warmth, comfort, and cooking facility
of a 'Little Cracker'.



This was the end result... Tubs of kindling...

 

And tubs of bigger wood and cones.

I put these in my bus to transport... To see if they would fit somewhere.

They did, one in an outside locker... The other inside in front of the passenger seat.

So with a few alterations... 

I think a fossil fuel fire is going to happen in my little home.

 

My last job for the day... 

Apart from sitting in the sun and trying to catch up 

on  reading last Saturday's newspaper...

Was to water and feed my basil.

I have shown you photos before so you will see how much is has grown.

I have given away about 12 little plants... 

There were too many in my basket!

And I'm starting to harvest and eat it now.

As I pick the tops off it will bush and the 6-8 plants I leave to grow 

will be nice and big.

I love the smell and taste.

So that was my day... Tomorrow I am moving on...

To the next adventure... Around the next corner... Whatever it might be...