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I really enjoy making pulled pork with a slow cooker. It is very simple to make and I can leave it in the slow cooker and come home from work and it is basically ready. Plus pork is such good value for money I can generally get a cut of meat from Gilmours from around $5-$7+GST a kilogram.

Ingredients:

• 1.5-2kg boneless pork shoulder
• 2 tablespoons of smoked paprika
• 2 teaspoons of fennel seeds
• 1 teaspoon of ground coriander
• 2 teaspoons of dried oregano
• 2 teaspoons of dried thyme
• 1/2 teaspoon of ground mustard powder
• 1/4 teaspoon of cayenne pepper
• salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
• 250ml of apple juice

Method:

1. Combine the smoked paprika, fennel seeds, ground coriander, oregano, thyme, mustard powder, cayenne pepper, salt and pepper and rub this on the pork shoulder. Refridgerate uncovered overnight.
2. In the morning pour the apple juice into the slow cooker and place the pork shoulder in the juice. The apple juice should be 2 cm around the pork.
3. Cook for 6-8 hours on low in the slow cooker.
4. After cooking remove the pork and pull it apart with two forks.
5. Remove the liquid from the slow cooker and skim off the fat.
6. Optionally you can add around 1/2 a cup of tomato sauce to the liquid in a saucepan and then simmer until thick. However, at the moment I like just combining the liquid with the pork without adding the tomato sauce (only because I am trying to reduce my carbohydrate intake).
7. Serve with coleslaw.

Ingredients:

• 1-2kg pork loin
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 4 teaspoons minced garlic
• ½ teaspoon of the following herbs:
  • Basil
  • Thyme
  • Oregano
  • Parsley
  • Rosemary
• ½ cup of oil
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• ¼ teaspoon of cracked black pepper
• 4 teaspoons of dijon mustard
• 4 teaspoons of honey

Instructions:

Marinade the pork:

1. Pat pork loin dry with paper towel
2. Stir together lemon juive, garlic, herbs, oil, salt, pepper, dijon mustard and honey.
3. Pour mixture into a zip lock bag along with the loin. Press out excess air, seal the bag and chill overnight.

Grill the pork:

Transfer the pork loin to a charcoal BBQ cook for around 45 minutes per 1 kg. Turn every 10 minutes to ensure even cooking and brush the left over marindate over all sides of the of the pork with each turn. When finished transfer to a cutting board and allow to rest for 5 minutes before cutting and serving.

It has been awhile since I have made a post on this blog (over 12 months now). Hopefully, I will keep it more regularly updated.

At the moment, I have almost finished working on painting the interior of my rental property in Turangi. The only painting remaining inside is in the kitchen. I took a long weekend around Waitangi day (6 February) and I organised the carpet laying and started preparing the weather boards for painting. Over Easter I planned to have the kitchen install organised, along with organising the vinyl in the kitchen and dining room area. I also hoped to have the exterior paint job finished. However, due to the Covid-19 restrictions in place from 26 March I was stuck at home and unable to travel outside Auckland.

I didn’t have the opportunity to complete any further work on the property during Queen’s birthday weekend. I needed to complete some work at the office over the long weekend due to a workflow backlog caused by the month long level 4 restrictions and two week level 3 restrictions.

Without any more long weekends available, it appears that work has stalled until Labour Weekend. Hopefully I should be able to take a weekend here or there to organise the delivery of the new kitchen for installaltion. However, the painting will need to wait until winter finishes.

This is disappointing as I hoped to have the property tenanted by now.

List of things needing completing:

• Line kitchen with gib and gibstop
• Paint kitchen
• Install kitchen
• Lay vinyl in kitchen and dining room
• Fix broken window sashes and fix new window stays
• Paint Exterior
• Install new guttering
• Lay new tiles around fireplace

I am going to post some pictures of my progress once I have visited the property again.

I know it is a little late in the year to talk about new year’s resolutions. However, I thought that I would write about my progress regarding these in order to keep track of my achievements.

My first resolution was to get more active and try to lose weight. I think that this would be the most common new year resolution people make. That being said, I put on around 10 kilograms over a year due a variety of factors. The main one being that I injured by back in January 2018 in which I still visit the physiotherapist once a month to keep in check. In order to keep my weight in check I decided to start going to the gym and aim to complete a half marathon on 3 August. So far I am managing to go to the Gym at least 2 times a week. I have lost around 2 kilograms since starting in February 8 May. I now weigh around 95kg. With respect to running the half marathon, my training has not really started. I know time is running out and I need to start training, this will require more of a commitment in my evenings and potentially reducing the amount of gym sessions I complete each week.

My second resolution was to deal with my property that is vacant in Turangi. This would either be by selling it, or doing it up so that it can be rented. I tried selling the property as is, however, received no offers on the property. This was rather disappointing. Therefore I decided I decided that I would do the property up so that it could be rented. So far I have completed the painting of the ceilings, and walls. I have also removed the old kitchen and the wall in the dining room. The new kitchen has been designed at cabjaks and I am waiting to complete the painting before installation. I have also moved the wall between a bedroom and the bathroom and the hallway and the bathroom. The goal of this was to make the bathroom larger so that it can fit a bath. So far I have made some progress, however, it is not complete.

My last resolution was to restart my french lessons. I was studying french from 2014 to 2017. However, in February 2018 Alliance Francaise cancelled their lessons in Pakuranga. Due to work and other commitments I never managed to re-enrol into one of their Grey Lynn classes. The last class I completed was their B2.1 class. I re-enrolled and started lessons in their B2.2 class on 7 February. I’m very rusty at the moment having not studied for over a year, however, I’m sure that I will remember my earlier studies once I get further into the classes.

I listed my property in Turangi in December. It appears that the market is not interested in do-it-up properties. Despite, according to the agent, numerous viewings and potential purchasers being “enthusiastic” or “showing interest,” I have not received any offers during the sole agency period. It seems as though potential purchasers see the property as “too much work.” This is despite it being the cheapest listing in Turangi. I have decided that I will do it up and rent it out. My reasoning behind this is that rents have increased significantly over the last 18 months. By investing in a new kitchen, bathroom and carpet I should be able to get $350 to $380 per week rent. The payback period on repairs and maintenance will be approximately 18 months based on the estimated net rents.

I’m not enthusiastic about the time involved in doing it up. I have spent so far 2 weeks in January plus Auckland anniversary weekend doing work on it. I worked Waitangi day (Wednesday 6 February) so that I could work Friday and Saturday on the property. However, I do see the long term financial benefits of doing the work. When finished it will attract a better standard of tenant and higher rents. Or should I wish to list the property again it will improve the chances of a sale.

My wife is not enthusiastic as it will take up a every second weekend of my time. This means she is left looking after two children (approximately 4 years old and 2 years old) by herself while I am away. I do miss spending time with my family in the weekends. With both of us working I only see my kids during the week in the mornings at breakfast and at dinner/bed time.

However, as I see it once all the deferred maintenance is sorted it should be easier to manage and not take as much time. I have learned my lesson and will not to defer maintenance. As it ends up compounding thus becoming a real problem that consumes a lot of time later.

I will post some pictures of the work as work has been completed.

I went out fishing this evening and caught some good sized trout. I usually butterfly them and smoke them with manuka sawdust. The recipe I use for the smoking buffer is:

• Butter
• Brown sugar
• Ginger

Ensure that you season the trout with salt and let it rest in the refrigerator for awhile prior to adding the buffer.

To make the buffer, melt the butter in a saucepan then add the brown sugar and stir. Once it has an even consistency add one or two teaspoons of ginger. Then pour the buffer directly over the trout and ensure it is evenly coated and smoke with manuka sawdust. Enjoy!

I really enjoy cooking on the barbecue during the summer months. One of my favourite recipes to feed 4-6 people is a butterflied leg of lamb. Below is a recipe I use to marinade the meat beforehand.

Ingredients:

• 2-3 kg leg of New Zealand lamb, boned and butterflied
• 1 large brown onion
• 2 teaspoons of rosemary (preferably fresh)
• 2 teaspoons of thyme (preferably fresh)
• 1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar (or lemon juice)
• 1 tablespoon of honey (or brown sugar)
• 1 tablespoon of crushed garlic
• 3-4 tablespoons of soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon of olive oil
• Salt
• Pepper

Method:

• Place the lamb in a plastic bag.
• Then mix all the other ingredients together in a bowl. Ensure that the honey is totally dissolved.
• Then pour all the ingredients into the bag with the lamb and ensure that they evenly cover the lamb.
• Tie the bag off with a twist-tie and place in the refrigerator overnight.
• Occasionally turn the bag over to ensure that the marinade has a chance to completely cover all the meat.
• Remove the meat from the refrigerator and ensure it has reached room temperature before cooking.
• Remove the meat from the plastic bag and scrape off the onion and other loose ingredients. You want to do this as burnt onion does not have a good taste.
• Cook on a charcoal barbecue on a medium heat turning every 10 minutes. A small leg needs around 30 to 35 minutes, a large leg may need around 40 to 45 minutes.

I left the fruit to steep for around 4 days. Last night I decided to finish making the Christmas puddings.

It is currently steaming in the pudding basin at the moment. When it is finished I will post a photo of the end result.

UPDATE:

This is the end result. On the Christmas day this will require 3 hours of steaming before serving.

A textured ceiling in our bedroom was damaged due to a leaking roof during a storm earlier in the year.  As part of the repair the texture needed to be removed.  As such we were advised that we needed to vacate our house for approximately three weeks whilst they removed it and go various asbestos clearance certificates.  So this required us packing suitcases and moving to a studio at my parent’s house.  Packing enough clothing to last two small children was difficult, because at the best of times we do on average one full load of laundry a day.  However, we managed it.

Living in the studio was hard.  Our son slept in a porta cot that just fit into the small walk-in wardrobe.  My daughter slept next door in the main house.  We cooked using a portable LPG cooker, had no jug, no toaster or oven.  Though I did enjoy staying there, as the walks around Bucklands Beach were terrific due to it being so close to the sea.

While we were living in the studio the textured ceiling removal and ceiling repair were completed within five days of us leaving the house and a verbal clearance was given to the decorators by the removers.  By the start of the second week the written clearance had been given.  However, this was when things started going a bit pear shaped.  Firstly, the scope of the works was changed from not removing all the wallpaper and plastering and repainting to only removing the wallpaper on two walls.  The wallpaper was textured, you can imagine the finished result.  Then it was they were not going to remove any wallpaper and paint over the textured wallpaper.

Secondly, the painters could not find the colour we had selected. Which was quarter pearl lusta (a Resene colour) that even Dulux managed to tint for us in previous occasions.  I think they were using this as an excuse.

We then managed to finally get the loss adjuster to sort out the scope change and settled on getting the two walls that needed repairing plastered and painted (with the other two to be handled by us).  However, the project manager could not get the plasterer that he organised to do the job or find another to do the job.  After about 2 weeks the project manager found another plasterer and the painters then finished the job.  However, on inspecting the finished result, the plastering was an average, the skirtings were not painted and they had not removed our curtains before starting and had damaged some with paint.

Finally after around 7 weeks out of the house we managed to move in.  Our children had rooms, however, we still needed to finish the other two walls.  So we ended up setting up a makeshift bedroom in our living room for 2 weeks while I removed the wallpaper, plastered the walls and painted them.  We also had to accommodate my wife’s cousin and significant other who had decided at a whim to travel to New Zealand from France to walk part of the Te Araroa trail for a couple of months.  Fortunately, they were staying a couple of days and didn’t mind sleeping in an unfinished bedroom on an air mattress.

In any case after 9 weeks it is great to move into back into our room.  The only things that need finishing is replacing the door handle and painting the timber joinery.

After this episode I will definitely take a time frame and budget on it taking three times longer than expected!

Here is a recipe for cheese scones that I use when I do baking with my daughter.  It is simple to follow and keeps my 3 and a half year old daughter entertained.  Here are some I made earlier today with her:

Ingredients:

• 3 cups of plain flour
• 6 teaspoons of baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon of salt
• 75 grams of butter
• 3/4 cup of grated cheese
• Around 1-1.5 cups of milk

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 220 degrees Celsius.
2. Sift flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl.
3. Cut the butter into the flour mixture with fingers until the mixture resembles the consistency of fine breadcrumbs and there are no longer any chunks of butter left.
4. Add grated cheese to the bowl.
5. Slowly add milk little by little and mix quickly with a knife until the mixture resembles a soft dough.  Sometimes you will need a little more or less of the milk to get this consistency.
6. Kneed the dough a few times
   
7. Line an oven tray with baking powder.
8. Press scone dough down on oven tray and cut into 12 evenly sized pieces.  Leave around 2 cm between each scone.
9. Brush the top of each scone with milk.
10. Grate some cheese on top of each scone.
11. Bake at 220 degrees Celsius for around 10 minutes or until the scones are golden brown.