Book Review: Home Smoking Basics: For Meat, Fish and Poultry By Maria Sartor

This is a book review of Home Smoking Basics: For Meat, Fish and Poultry by Maria Sartor recently published on 28 June 2014.

We have just purchased a Bradley Smoker Digital 6 Rack Smoker Oven from a Perth local supplier The Smoke Shack. What we desperately needed was a cook book and guide to help us get the most out of our smoker.

 

The Home Smoking Basics has become my smoking bible over the last few weeks, it has step by step instructions on how to use different types of smokers - everything from an open fire to an electric smoker like mine. The different types of wood (flavour), basic tips and tricks, and is an all round great book for beginner smokers because it explains how the process works from beginning to end.

 

The book is split into chapters for each type of food - meat, fish and poultry. With a heap of different cooking techniques for each, everything from a cold or hot smoke, marinade, brines and rubs. There are basic recipes for cold and hot smoking and then there's more recipes at the back of the book using the food you've smoked.

 

I have been working my way through the recipes and will share these in a follow up blog post soon.

 

I recommend this book to the beginner smoker to use to get you started on your home smoking journey.

I give this book 4 stars out of 5

Jarrah Jungle's Star Rating:
1 Bad - I'd rather eat brussel sprouts topped with anchovies than read this again
2 Not Good - I'd rather watch re-runs of Neighbours than read this again
3 Ok - I'm sitting on the fence - its not great but not terrible either
4 Good - I'd pass up a pack of tim tams for this read
5 Great - I'd pass up a date with Johnny Depp for this read

Home Smoking Basics can be purchased from Schiffer Publishing

Sharing my book review on Good Reads here

Disclosure: Schiffer Publishing and NetGalley partner with bloggers such as me to help promote their books. Thanks to Schiffer Publishing for sending me a hardcopy of this book to review. As always, all opinions are my own.

For exclusive extras and daily updates ... follow Jarrah Jungle on Facebook and Instagram


[Image via Schiffer Publishing]


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Girls Weekend Away .... Kalgoorlie Bound

Since my recent holiday at home post I've been thinking about my girls weekend away to Kalgoorlie for the Kalgoorlie Cup next month.

Now I know some of you may find this amusing .... although I'm a city girl now I really am a country girl at heart. Nowadays I follow fashion, always wear lipstick, scream when I see bugs and like my cushions to match the decor at home. But I wasn't always like that .....


All dressed up for my country hoe down housewarming party!
I think the look I was going for was a cross between Dolly Parton and Daisy Duke!!

Growing up my Mum had to beg and bribe me to put on a dress and I'd only agree to get out of my jeans once a year for a special occasion! My idea of dressing up was wearing clear mascara and my hair in a pony tail. I use to collect spiders from the shearing shed on the farm and bring them up to the house in a jar until my Dad would find them and make me take the creepy crawlies back again!

When my girlfriends suggested we all head to the Kalgoorlie Cup this year for a weekend of fun and festivities that country girl inside me got all excited .... red dirt, sunny days and laid back people sounds like an amazing adventure!

It's time for this city girl to go country again!

  

Outback wrangling in Queensland!

For those who are wondering where the heck Kalgoorlie is - it's an outback town in the far west of Western Australia about 6 hours drive from Perth. I've been to Kalgoorlie a couple of times - I've gone by car, train, bus and plane. This time around we're catching a plane because it's the quickest way to get there, it takes 1 hour which means we'll get the most out of our weekend away.

To paint a picture of Kalgoorlie ..... there's red dirt everywhere (so don't wear all white!), barren but beautiful landscapes, clear blue skys, stinking hot days and chilly cool nights. It's an outback country town probably best known for the number of pubs on the towns main street - finding a cold beer here is never a problem.

Roadside views like this are seen on the way to Kalgoorlie

Our beautiful rustic Australian bush

The event that a lot of visitors come for is the Kalgoorlie Cup which is on 19 - 20 September this year and the place to be is Tentland with food, drinks, entertainment and of course horse races! I love watching the horses line up ready to race and the excitement as the horses and their jockeys power towards the finishing line ..... I hope I pick some winners!

I can't wait for this girls weekend away .... the promise of an adventure awaits and it's definitely helping me beat the travel bug with a holiday at home.

I'll let you know how our weekend away goes and remember you can keep up to date with my adventures on Facebook and Instagram too!

[First 2 images my own - Special thanks to Dakota Johnston for last 2 images]

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Laundry Renovation - Flat Pack Cabinet Assembly And Installation

After a lot of planning we picked out the flat pack cabinets and accessories for our laundry renovation and then it was the fun part - assembling them and installation.

 

In all honesty, this is what you pay more money for when choosing flat packs Vs a cabinet maker - for someone elses time to put it all together and install because the carcases of the cabinets are pretty much made from the same materials.

The base and wall cabinets went together quickly without any problems but the drawer for the pull out caddy took a bit longer to work out.

 

So just how much time did it take to put these flat packs together?

 

Our flat packs for the laundry

 

4 hours

To do: 1 base cabinet, 1 drawer base cabinet and 2 wall cabinets

 

Base cabinet and drawer cabinet assembled

 

Upper head cabinets assembled

 

Now to get these babies in place and installed in the laundry. Starting with the base cupboards we worked from the corner and installed the drawer cabinet and base cabinet, made sure they were level, then screwed into the wall.

 

Instead of buying another side panel to go against the drawer cabinet up against the wall which you wouldn't even see, we cut off a piece from the kick panel and used that. It fit perfectly and saved us $90.

 

Base cabinet, drawer cabinet and end panel made from kick panel in place

 

Next was to install the other end panel and fit the bench top (I will do a separate post about our $99 bench transformation). 

 

Mr P spent hours making supports using the left over kick panel so there was more than just the end panel holding up the bench top for extra strength - but we realised the supports wouldn't fit due to the height of the washing machine. So in the end we used some simple metal brackets, which fit perfectly and took up less space than the kick panel turned brackets.

 

Take my advice .... always measure your appliances first so you don't waste your time!

 

We also had a delay with the end panel as it was bent when we unwrapped it. Thankfully it was an easy exchange at the store for another side panel. Once the side panel was installed all the base flat packs were officially in!

 

Second time lucky just making sure this panel was straight!

 

Now onto the upper head cabinets .... we worked out the right height (not too high so I can reach the shelves easily!) and then attached a level piece of wood to the wall to act as a guide for placing the cabinets above and it also took some of the weight off me trying to hold them up for Mr P to screw them into place.

 

Working out the heights first

 

Attaching a piece of wood to act as a guide

 

Drilling out a hole in the cupboard for the air conditioner tap to come out the wall

 

A perfect fit - that's why you measure a dozen times just to be sure!

 

A plug and a screw and drill straight through the cabinet into the brick to secure to the wall

 

Fitting the end panel

 

Fitting the other end panel and making sure all the cabinets were square and lined up

 

Upper head cupboards in and doors attached

 

All the flat packs, bench top and trough are in

 

We will put the handles on later and remove all the protective film once we've finished working in here - no the cabinets aren't blue, they're a gorgeous glossy white!

 

Now we can get our tiler back to do the splash back tile behind the laundry bench and powder room vanity, and to finish the kick tile as well.

 

We then need to paint, paint and paint some more and I'm really excited to be partnering with Dulux for a painting project again!

 

After a few weeks delay things are back on track with the laundry renovation .....If you want to see our progress to date check out these posts:

Laundry Progress - Plastering, Sanding and Washing
Laundry/Powder Room Renovation - Changing The Plumbing

Laundry/Powder Room Renovation - Demolition Success

Laundry/Powder Room Renovation - Demolition Weekend Plans

Laundry Renovation - The Final Design

Laundry Renovation - Wood Look Bench Top

Laundry Renovation - Flat Packs Vs Cabinet Maker

Tips for picking out laundry flat pack cabinets

Powder Room Renovation - It's All In The Flush

Powder Room Renovation - Basin and Vanity: Take Two

Powder Room Renovation - Basin and Vanity

Splash Back Choices - Be Brave Or Play It Safe

Laundry Renovation - Let's Go Mosaic Tile Shopping

Laundry Renovation - Picking The Tiles

Laundry/Powder Room - Floor Tiles Laid

Laundry Before - Our 1960s Laundry/Toilet

edesign Mood Board for the Laundry

Renovating - 5 tips for planning and designing



Sharing with link parties:

Savvy Southern Style - Wow Us Wednesdays
Home Coming - The DIYers
The Dedicated House - Make It Pretty Monday and Before and After Wednesday



For exclusive extras and daily updates ... follow Jarrah Jungle on Facebook and Instagram


[All images my own]

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Book Review And Preview: People I Want To Punch In The Throat By Jen Mann

This is a book review and preview of People I Want To Punch In The Throat: Competitive Crafters, Drop-Off Despots, and other Suburban Scourges by Jen Mann that is due to hit book stores on 9 September 2014.

 

Jen Mann writes for a number of publications and has a very popular blog of the same name People I Want To Punch In The Throat where she has won a heap of blog awards for her writing and humour. Jen lives in Kansas USA with her husband and two school aged kids.

 

As the title suggests, this book is a funny and sarcastic tale of Jen's sharp wit and opinion against motherhood, marriage, and everything in between.

 

There is no real beginning or ending in this book, it's a compilation of short stories very similar to Jen's blog. Some people have suggested the book is a compilation of blog posts from the blog, but this is not the case. The content in her book is not on her blog, it's all fresh and new.

Jen doesn't fit into the perfect mould of a Mum and Wife and these are her very funny and snarky stories of the challenges she faces each day. My favourite was her driving to school pick up in her pajamas when all the other Mums are in their designer clothes with perfect hair, of course that's the one day when she had to get out of the car because her son wasn't there waiting for her!

Jen doesn't have a filter she cuts the fluff and tells it like it really is and I think that's what makes her so appealing to readers. I was cringing and rooting for her all at the same time.

Being a blogger myself, I am always interested in reading books about bloggers. Whilst I hadn't heard of Jen's blog before and am new to her short and sharp writing style, I did find it very easy to read like it was a friend telling me stories and I finished reading this short book in just a few days.

I recommend this book to readers of the People I Want To Punch In The Throat blog and Mum's who need a good honest laugh.

 

I give this book 3 stars out of 5

 

Jarrah Jungle's Star Rating:

1 Bad - I'd rather eat brussel sprouts topped with anchovies than read this again
2 Not Good - I'd rather watch re-runs of Neighbours than read this again
3 Ok - I'm sitting on the fence - its not great but not terrible either
4 Good - I'd pass up a pack of tim tams for this read
5 Great - I'd pass up a date with Johnny Depp for this read
 

People I Want to Punch In The Throat can be purchased from Random House

Sharing my book review on Good Reads here

Disclosure: Random House and NetGalley partner with bloggers such as me to help promote their book and I was given this eBook published by Random House Ballantine Books to review. As always, all opinions are my own.

 

 

For exclusive extras and daily updates ... follow Jarrah Jungle on Facebook and Instagram

[Image via Random House]

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Recipe: Chocolate Chip Cookies

Now some of you may be shocked by this, being a self proclaimed Domestic Goddess and all BUT I've never made biscuits before. So while Mr P was working away on the Laundry renovation last weekend, I covered the kitchen in flour and got my bake on!

 

These Chocolate Chip Cookies taste a bit like short bread they are really buttery with delicious pops of chocolate bits. Easy to make too and much quicker than a cake or muffin, I don't know what I was so worried about not attempting to bake biscuits before now!

 

Chocolate Chip Cookies

The Australian Women's Weekly - Book of Beautiful Biscuits

 

Ingredients

 

125g butter, softened

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla

1 egg, whisked

1 and 3/4 cups self raising flour, sifted

1/2 tsp salt

125g chocolate bits

 

Method
 

1. Cream together butter, sugars and vanilla.

 

2. Gradually add the egg, beating well after each addition.

3. Mix in flour and salt.
 

4. Add the chocolate bits and mix well.

 

 

5. Lay baking paper onto baking trays.

 

6. Shape teaspoons of mixture into small balls.

 

7. Place balls onto the trays and allow room for spreading so they don't stick together while baking.

 

 

8. Bake at 195 degrees for 10 - 12 minutes until biscuits have risen and golden.

 

9. Remove to cool and try not to eat all the warm delicious chocolate melting biscuits before placing into an air tight container.

This recipe was a great one for a novice timer biscuit baker like myself, it was really easy and the biscuits turned out tasty and delicious!
 

For exclusive extras and daily updates ... follow Jarrah Jungle on Facebook and Instagram


[All images my own]

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It's A Jungle Out There ....

Our backyard has been looking like an overgrown jungle of weeds lately. Why is it we can't get the grass to grow but the weeds are out in force!

So we spent a gorgeous sunny Sunday afternoon tackling the weeds and reclaimed our backyard again.

Amongst all the weeds in the herb garden I recovered my hardy parsley growing strong, year after year without much love at all the parsley grows here. I use fresh parsley all the time in the kitchen so it's been such a great herb to grow at home. My other favourite is coriander but that hasn't grown back this year so I need to plant some seeds.

 

Not growing so well is my lemon tree that I've had for more than 3 years now and it still hasn't produced ANY LEMONS. My Bacardi and lemonade just doesn't taste the same without it .... C'mon lemon tree please grow some fruit!

We have a double sized block which is so nice to have a big patch of grass and somewhere for Lexi to play, but the downside is there are twice as many weeds to wiper snip and mow!
 

Lexi is happy with the newly mowed grass and we uncovered a bunch of her toys that were hidden amongst all the weeds and now we can play without falling down hidden holes and spraining an ankle (yes I've come close many times!).

 

Lexi still won't chase a ball but she absolutely loves to play chasey!

 

 

There's still a lot of work to be done out here to establish the gardens. The herb and vegetable gardens need to be replanted and fenced off so Lexi can't dig them out (again!).

We'll be doing some gardening next month in Spring, a perfect time for planting.

How is your garden growing?

Sharing with link parties:

Savvy Southern Style - Wow Us Wednesdays

Home Coming - The DIYers
The Dedicated House - Make It Pretty Monday




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[All images my own]


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Book Review: Down Outback Roads By Alissa Callen

This is a book review of Down Outback Roads by Alissa Callen that was published on 1 May 2014.

 

Alissa is Australian born and raised on a farm and now lives in rural outback New South Wales with her children, husband, dogs, horses and cows - yes a true country girl! This is Alissa's second novel.

This is a country romance based in a drought affected town Glenalla in country New South Wales.

The two main characters are torn between love, loss and loyalty - Ewan a young farmer lad who doesn't think he deserves to be happy and fall in love and Kree a young America girl who thinks taking care of her adventurous brother should overshadow her own happiness.

I enjoyed the story of life on the farm but it wasn't really believable - leaving Kree to look after a farm with absolutely no experience was pretty unrealistic and there is no way you could spend your days pottering around in the vegetable garden or painting all day when there was farm work to be done!

I liked all the characters in the book, especially the town folk stereotypes.

I really wanted to like this book more but struggled with the writing style, there were way too many describing words for every single thought and action. I also found Ewan and Kree's resistance at love pretty wearing at times.

I recommend this book to fans of country romance and American's with an interest in living in Australia.

I give this book 2 stars out of 5

Jarrah Jungle's Star Rating:
1 Bad - I'd rather eat brussel sprouts topped with anchovies than read this again
2 Not Good - I'd rather watch re-runs of Neighbours than read this again
3 Ok - I'm sitting on the fence - its not great but not terrible either
4 Good - I'd pass up a pack of tim tams for this read
5 Great - I'd pass up a date with Johnny Depp for this read

Down Outback Roads can be purchased from Random House here

Sharing my book review on Good Reads here

Disclosure: Random House Australia and NetGalley partner with bloggers such as me to help promote their books and I was given this eBook to review. As always, all opinions are my own.

For exclusive extras and daily updates ... follow Jarrah Jungle on Facebook and Instagram

[Image via Random House]

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