Easy to change, jar labels...

I like to use jars to store things in and sometimes they need to be labeled so that other people using the kitchen know whats in my jars!

I used to make all sorts of fancy labels which was fun and looked great but was annoying when the contents changed or you wanted to be more specific with the label than just "Tea" or "Coffee."

I also used to cut the name of the product off the packet and then drop it inside the jar but it usually ended up unreadable or covered up by the contents of the jar - and then just recently - I had an idea!

Here's what I did...

I cut the labels off the packets as if I was going to drop them into the jar...

And the just stuck them to the jar with a rubber band!

Too easy!

This works wel for my tea labels as I change teas depending on where I get them from from time to time.

As you can see this jar has had a number of teas in it. I keep the labels underneath the current one to save me having to chop up the box again as I often buy the same tea (or cornflour or cocoa) over and over.

This works well for me and adds a bit of character to the kitchen - where nothing really matches anyway! Its quick, easy, free and very practical!

Score card:
Green-ness: Storing your food in reusable and recyclable containers is nice and green!
Frugal-ness: Getting your containers and labels for free is very frugal!
Time cost: About 1 minute!
Skill level: Incredibly easy!
Fun-ness: Great fun!!!

Comments

Killing cockroaches with boric acid v borax!

We live in Queensland. We have cockroaches. Lots of cockroaches! Why the NSW rugby team is called the Cockroaches is a mystery to me - surely ours are not only bigger but more plentiful??? At any rate, I don't like living with them (and I'm quite sure they are not so fond of me at the moment!!) and I have been going through the usual gauntlet of sprays, solutions and bombs to get rid of them...

But I'm not so keen on the chemical aspect of all this spraying and bombing. I hate the smell and can almost feel disease and cancer growing in me every time I spray. I'm OK with the resident cockies getting a lungful of chemicals and then keeling over but I feel its impolite (and probably illegal) if my guests and family members do the same thing!!!

We went through a faze of killing them by hand (and flyswatter and rolled up newspaper and underfoot) but its hard and frustrating work and it probably was only culling the dumb and slow ones - leaving the smart fast ones to breed!!!

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What to do when your cat attacks a bird... and doesn't kill it.

We have an eight year old cat who we got as a stray about six years ago. The vet reckoned she was about two when we got her and we did all the right things and got her spayed and vaccinated and all that stuff. She loves people and no matter where you are in the house or garden, she will not be far away. She really good with kids and will put up with the squishiest cuddles and a far bit of toddler tail fascination before bolting out the door to escape. She is well fed (despite the look she is giving me and the empty bowl below...) but not fat - but still the urge to hunt and subsequently kill still seems to be quite strong.

Last weekend, she pounced out of nowhere on a rainbow lorrikeet - thankfully my husband and a band of teenage boys were also there and managed to grab the bird before the cat had done more than pounce. Now we have a slightly mangled still alive but obviously unwell bird on our hands - what do you do?

Here's what we did...

We found a box - popped an old towel in t…

Making homemade soap from lamb fat!

At work recently, we cooked up 3,000 lamb shanks (yes that was three thousand- and it took us a week!) for a feast which gave a us a huge amount of unwanted fat.

Normally that would have been thrown into the skip but I had remembered reading somewhere that animal fat - or tallow - can be used for making soap. If you have a look on a commercial packet of soap you will see something called sodium tallowate - that's scientific speak for rendered beef fat.
I have been making my own olive oil soap for a few years now with reasonable success, so I collected up all the fat I could, rendered it and gave making soap from fat a go!

Here's what I did...

I rendered the fat, which basically involves heating it to melting point and then filtering it through sieves that get finer and finer and then adding water (don't boil the fat or adding water will make it explode) and leaving the fat to set - on top of the water. The impurities should fall to the bottom and be caught in the water -…

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