Today I spent most of the day in the kitchen… In addition to needing to do dinner prep, we were out of: bone broth but had beef bones; tomato & chilli jam but had tomatoes and chillies; fresh bananas but had frozen.
All the recipes I needed I’d recently and conveniently compiled on a new Useful Links page on my blog… 
These days a good part of my job description is to feed us… it’s not how I want to spend ALL my days, however time spent in the kitchen means we eat well but also economically, and that my cooking skills are improving. Helped along by having a world of recipes at my Google searching fingertips and inspiration from my friends and blogging community online.
A little while ago near-disaster… via a software upgrade, my Favourites lists of saved websites were wiped. Fortunately, I had shared them here and there and was able to recover them.
The experience inspired me to emulate several blogging friends and create a Useful Links page on my blog.
Tomorrow, I garden.
daleleelife101.blog 
A great idea to save your favourites’ to a link … I save all mine to the cloud so I’m case of mishap it’s all there ….
I love days spent in the kitchen creating … its something I do quite mindlessly and gives me a sense of peace. My time at my sewing machine again is another … simple things makes a life complete. Now that the kids are grown and doing their own thing … cooking is now something I do coz I love it not because I have to have a meal for them to eat before rushing out to sports or music or dancing etc etc etc … ♥️
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In case … not I’m case 😃
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Yes well, I had thought they were saved to a cloud as those on my laptop are…. but no. One day I may go to further lengths to either jot down or print the recipes I can’t live without but by then I’ll probably have commited them to memory…
‘Cos it’s just the 2 of us I can do a big cook up and the leftovers tide us over for a few days, and give me a break from the kitchen. I don’t know how people with kids keep up the food supply.
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Now that the kids are grown they usually take care of their own food … so it’s just J & me I need to keep nourished … like you I cook on a Friday & Saturday and that usually keeps us going for a fair few days … I only need to top up with bread or Roti’s or Sabji …
When the kids were smaller it would be cooking every day plus make hearty snacks to take with me on school pick up times as we would have to go straight to sport … believe me I’m very happy those days are over … I’d always have take away on a Friday just for a break , now we literally never have take away. I prefer home cooked any time … I’m lucky J loves to cook as well so most weekends he adds to the weekend menu 🤩
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A man who cooks is a keeper. The G.O. is the bbq master, and his son just gave him a smoker…
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Yes definitely 🤩 Smoker sounds like fun … post when G.O. uses it 🤗
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It’s amazing how time spent cooking adds up, especially if you cook from scratch and from fresh ingredients. Thanks for pointing out the new tab, it does help to have it all in one place.
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I usually spend at least an entire day a week in the kitchen and then as necessary. Tg over the years I’ve developed some routines, shortcuts and familiarity that has streamlined the processes… I love it but there’s so much more on my to-do lists.
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Your food photography is so lovely and inspiring! I spend a lot of time cooking. I’ve never enjoyed cooking We are Paleo lifestyle people and that has been a challenge in itself – all fresh and from scratch. I spend summer months growing food, freezing or drying vegetables, making my own sauces and spice blends for use throughout the coming year. I had to learn to bake differently too, since we don’t use grains. While I sometimes complain about the work involved and time I spend with food prep, I am also very happy that we eat well and enjoy nourishing foods. I’m thankful for the internet… searching for new recipes is easy nowadays.
Gardening has always been a passion so that helps, and Forrest is a hunter, so we eat a lot of wild meats. I have a self-created recipe book with my favorites, but I find myself looking online a lot for new recipes. You’ve inspired me to become more organized about collecting my favorite recipes online. My problem is that I enjoy being outdoors more than anything… so the indoor organizing always gets put on the back burner!
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That’s very kind of you to say. I admire your paleo commitment. Over the years I’ve dabbled in Atkins-Keto-Paleo… but now found my comfort zone with the kind of cooking my nanna did, and as much organic and fresh ingredients as possible with Mediterranean dietary and Asian influences reflecting our growing multiculturalism … the best of all worlds, as I have low tolerance of refined carbs and sugars. Fortunately food and cooking is my hobby but I always have my eye on escaping the kitchen to spend time in the garden, or on one of the other pastimes which keep me amused.
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Lol – don’t tell anyone but…many of the blog posts I write are as much for me as for others, especially when it comes to recipes. 🙂
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That is how I employ Instagram… where something is a keeper and is my own or a tweaked recipe I post the pics and a note of what I did… It’s become a food, garden, life diary of sorts.
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Don’t you find it annoying though…doing it on a mobile??
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The opposite. I can draft words on laptop, and cut & paste, or do it all from my tablet.
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I’ve never used Instagram so I have no idea of the steps involved. So if you draft on the computer, /how/ do you cut and paste to the mobile or tablet or whatever?
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You can upload pics and simply type a post using phone but if the number of words are lengthy-ish as you quite rightly pointed out tiny keyboards can be annoying. So… accessing a draft email via an account common to each device eg gmail, using said phone, it’s possible to cut/copy & paste.
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Aaaah, I see. Thank you. I was really puzzled about the actual mechanics. Still can’t see myself using it though. I really dislike my phone. lol
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Great links list Dale. Thanks for sharing it.
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For me as well, and I like that it’s searchable, when on the page and Control-F you can type in for instance “tomato”… But one day I may sort the recipes.
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A month or so ago I got weighed down by the constant quartermaster duties. I was over organising three meals a day. It is important that the Fella has good quality, high protein meals, and therefore ones that he wants to eat. I think I am over that hump now, but thank heavens for eggs! I hope you have been able to get into the garden, and get your hands into that soil.
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Oh there’s been a few melting point moments & humps here and I’ve reached the oh let’s just go to the pub point several times but we didn’t… as you say, thank heavens for eggs. I spent all today in the garden and am now grateful we have leftovers from last night for dinner tonight.
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Ahhh, those days of just wandering down to the pub or deciding to have Vietnamese for lunch. At least regional Victorians are able to get back into some semblance of the real world ☺️
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I’ve spent a lot of time since mid March this year in my kitchen – from Mar until June (& then a bit now Sept) – I had a food box delivered, in which I only had a basic idea what was coming. I would spend 1/2 the arrival day deciding what needed to eaten soon through to what can safely live in the freezer. Then sometimes, particularly re: bananas I would need to find a recipe for them – finally after a few trails found a nice loaf which I make regularly… yes I know I can freeze banana…but often there just wasn’t any space available in there! I don’t have a big freezer, but it’s enough for me…
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Food boxes are awesome, they make us more inventive and resourceful. We live 30 kms from town/shops so a big freezer is necessity… unless we want to do a 60 km drive every few days.
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that’s where I’m lucky – I live about 20 minutes walk from a couple of big supermarkets – but I don’t like pushing a trolley around any of them. Up until our first lockdown, I used one of them who has online presence plus top-ups from local strip shops. But the delivery slots disappeared hence I went after the “food box avenue” …it taught me a lot!
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I’m slow to catch up with blogs at the moment, Dale. We’ve been off on a trip to Kings Canyon and then hubby’s life went crazy with new work which has meant I needed to regroup…and spring clean…ugh. Anyway, I hear you on the cooking thing. We like to eat well and healthy but spending every day in the kitchen is not for me, partly because it is so hot much of the year here. Like you, and Lori I make a few preserved items or freezer things that are shortcuts, and have favourite recipes saved to notebooks, which are slightly out of control at the moment, but due for a cull. Thanks for sharing your favourite links. Keep well. xx
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Thank you… Interludes of peace and busyness and… take some balancing. We’ve yet to spring clean… ugh. And I have a few more things on my kitchen to-do list. Then visitors. We’ve just gotten through a hectic garden period before the heat, and hopefully some rain comes. I haven’t even begun to organise-cull recipes stored elsewhere but I’m so pleased with what I accomplished on that links page simply for my own purposes. It’s a good life ♡
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