February in Casa Dirty Boots is ‘waste less food‘ and ‘spring clean‘ month. I’ve kept the ‘spring clean stuff’ a secret so far as the house really was a trifle messy for public view! I’m not one of nature’s domestic goddesses but every now and again I enjoy a big clean up and as its spring (sort of) I’m on a mission to make this place sparkle. A great way of incorporating a massive clean-up operation into daily life is to pick a month (you guessed it, mine is February) or indeed a week in which to zap the grime. […]
Bloody Mary Relish – One For the Grown-Ups
I really am thinking of summer now and continuing our favourite preserve theme. This is a tomato and cucumber relish. It is very zingy and fresh tasting. But, as it isn’t cooked for as long as a chutney or pickle it will only keep for three months. I don’t have any left and am missing this very grown-up relish. If you have an oversupply of tomatoes why not make yourself some Bloody Mary Relish? I can’t wait to replenish our supplies. Ingredients for Bloody Mary Relish 1.4kg ripe tomatoes, skinned & chopped 1 large cucumber or 2-3 ridge cucumbers, peeled, […]
Sun Dried Tomatoes in Olive Oil (Rain or Shine)
As I know its summer elsewhere I thought I’d put some of our favourite summer preserving recipes on the site. So while I dream of future harvests those in the Southern Hemisphere can get preserving now! I’m not jealous at all… Sun-dried tomatoes are gorgeous but really expensive and sun-blush tomatoes are even worse – just a daft name for a ‘not so dry’ sun-dried tomato! I wish I’d thought of that marketing gimmick – they’re even more expensive! Much as I really love sun-dried tomatoes (with tagliatelle and prawns – drool) I will not pay for them. If you […]
Compost Toilet DIY
As everyone who follows this site knows, we are fairly fanatical about preserving water and composting anything that we can. Let me ask you a question. If you owned Chickens, or if you do, would you, or do you, compost their droppings? You would? You do? So why don’t you compost your own poo and pee? Urrghh!! It’s nasty I hear you say! Well, get over it. Parents face much nastier things when they are bringing up children. Quite a hands on approach to bodily wastes is involved. So what is so nasty about simply emptying a sawdust covered, non […]
Saving On Electricity-An Easy Way To Save Money
Strangely enough this very easy method of saving Electricity was actually inspired (copied) from a tradition we found prevalent in Thailand. Every morning a large quantity of water would be boiled that was to be used throughout the day. Whether it was for making Coffee or Tea, or any of the numerous other Cooking Duties that involved the use of Hot Water this is what they would do. After the water was boiled it would be transferred to a Pump Thermos. This is an amazingly effective way of saving vast amounts of Electricity. It is nearly impossible to only boil […]
Reduce Food Waste – Week One
Last week I confirmed that Family Dirty Boots would be jumping on the ‘reduce food waste‘ bandwagon. I am going to be perfectly honest and admit I’m really surprised how much food we have in the house, but don’t consume ourselves.. Compared to our previous city life our food wastage is tiny. All that we don’t eat goes into dogs, cats, hens or the compost heap. Cooked bones are the only food item we send to landfill and even those are boiled down for stock first. However, when you actually start taking note of all the little bits and bobs […]
Mr.Dirty Boots Did An Interview
Hi everybody, this is just a quick note to tell you that I did an interview about our life here in Spain for Blagger. It is a great site and anyone that reads this blog will be sure to enjoy it. So why not go and read the interview about our Self Sufficient Life? Let us know how you think it went. For a more self sufficient future