Thursday, 16 September 2021

My DIY Tofu Press craft project


I've long wanted a proper wooden Tofu Press rather than relying on my previous system of wrapping the block in swathes of kitchen roll with something heavy balanced on top. That method is not only wasteful on kitchen roll paper, but I also discovered that tofu rarely compresses evenly - and stacked china plates don't bounce. Oops!


My DIY Tofu Press started with two sycamore wood rectangles, kindly cut and drilled for me by my friend David Dyke @ Luthiers Supplies. David is something of a wood guru so I took onboard his recommendation of sycamore as the best wood to use for the project. I had originally thought I wanted paduak due to the beauty of eatroot's elegant tofu presses for sale on Etsy. However David championed sycamore for food preparation purposes and I already have a great pig-shaped chopping board in the same wood (a gift from the same source) which the press would match nicely.


The two wood rectangles were each drilled with 4x 5mm holes and I managed to buy 4 5x100mm bolts, together with matching wingnuts at C C Clements, a wonderful traditional ironmongers in Wymondham, Norfolk. It must have taken the helpful assistant a good 10 minutes to trial various options until we found exactly what the project needed, and the hardware still only cost £3.20!


Having now got all the parts together, I then set about refining the wood. My partner keeps a few sandpapers in his toolbox in our campervan so I was able to find one suitable to rub down the sycamore. I took everything apart, sanded all the rough edges smooth and gave the angles a bit of a curve. I also tried to sand inside the bolt holes by rolling the sandpaper into tubes but this didn't work so well.


I don't know how well you can see the colour difference in this photo. My little HTC phone is now eight years old so its camera struggles! I lightly rubbed the sycamore rectangle on the right with rapeseed oil - the better of the two food grade oils we already had. I repeated this a couple more times on both pieces of wood before my project was put to use as the oil soaked in really quickly. I think, over time, oiling will give the wood a nice honey colour too.

I was so pleased with how the press worked on its first use. I actually position it slanting, on its end, across a deep plate so only one corner of the press stands in the drained liquid. I hope alternating the corners will keep my press going for many years. I did notice, after the first use, that the screw holes appeared to shrink a little, resulting in needing to completely unscrew and rescrew each long screw in order to disassemble and reassemble the press. This was even more of a faff to do than to type. We decided the best thing would be to slightly enlarge the screw holes with a handheld drill so now the wood slides without catching and only the wing nuts use the screw threads.


So here is my finished project. A Tofu Press! Obviously this pic is a mockup - I know I need to remove the tofu from its box first (and, despite what Tofoo claim, I think their tofu does need a half hour's pressing before use). I'm delighted with it and look forward to lots more easy and delicious tofu meals!

Sunday, 28 April 2019

What's in my wardrobe?

Courgette and Tomato Chutney 
I'm linking up with The Sunday Post at Caffeinated Reviewer and The Sunday Salon at Readerbuzz.

I'm celebrating a cookery triumph this weekend. My first attempt at making chutney - including the whole sterilising the jars palaver - is deemed a success! I used this Courgette And Tomato Chutney recipe on AllRecipes and, surprisingly for me, didn't tweak any ingredient other than halving all the quantities. The chutney is delicious served alongside toasted pita bread with homemade hummous!


I read a great Treading My Own Path post back at the beginning of March where Lindsay was going to try to establish her absolute minimum wardrobe by wearing 3 outfits for 30 days. At the time, we were travelling so I only had about half my clothes in the motorhome, but I promised myself when we got back home (and I'd done the laundry!), I'd count up my clothing and see what exactly I have to wear. Then I'd keep track of what I actually Do wear!

So, excluding undies and swimwear, I have: 2 dresses, 6 long shirts, 12 tops and t-shirts, 4 vest tops, 4 cardigans, 1 fleece jacket, 6 skirts, 3 pairs of trousers, 2 ponchos, 2 coats and 5 pairs of shoes.

It doesn't look like much when listed like this and would probably all fit in a good sized suitcase - if I wore my hiking boots anyway. I am happy with most of what I've got and don't feel the need to rush out and buy more - even second-hand. I might be able to condense this wardrobe even further by using a trick Lindsay explained in one of her earlier posts. Basically, she tied a scarf around her clothes rail at the left end. Anything she wore was then moved to the left of the scarf when it was put away. At the end of three months, every unworn item still on the right-hand side of the scarf could be considered for discarding. I wonder what this exercise might leave for me?


Giveaways closing soon
28th Apr: Win an ebook copy of An Empty Nest by Sandy Day.
29th Apr: Win a signed copy of The Stars In The Night by Clare Rhoden plus a metal poppy brooch made by a Melbourne craftswoman, and a cross-stitch poppy card.

(All current giveaways here)

On my blogs this week were:

Stephanie Jane
5 Books, 1 Theme - The Great War
Books From The Backlog - Once Upon A Time In The West ... Country by Tony Hawks

Literary Flits
April In Paris by Michael Wallner review
The Seventh Train by Jackie Carreira review
The High Court by Chris Ledbetter Spotlight + #Giveaway + Guest Post
Caught In A Web by Joseph Lewis Spotlight + Excerpt
Demian by Hermann Hesse review
Once Upon A Time In The West ... Country by Tony Hawks review
The Garden Of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng review

Have a great week!


the biggest lizard we've yet seen living round our static caravan
about 8 inches long I think 
we loved the river views of Saumur, but were underwhelmed with the town itself 
this creepily beautiful sculpture is in the out-of-the-way village of Chateau Larcher. There wasn't any sign to identify the artist 

Sunday, 21 April 2019

Back in France! Visiting Vannes in Brittany

I'm linking up with The Sunday Post at Caffeinated Reviewer and The Sunday Salon at Readerbuzz.

Thank you so much for all your kind wishes last week. We've just about recovered now and have had a nice week pottering around discovering a few new places in France. It was frustrating not to be able to explore with our usual energy, but I think we both appreciated getting out of the motorhome for a few hours each day which is more than we'd managed the week before!

Vannes in Brittany is our great new-to-us discovery and most of the photos on this post were taken there. It has a kind of a La Rochelle vibe, but less touristy and with more open spaces. We loved the half-timbered houses, the historic (and huge) old town walls and the beautiful municipal flowers in the parks. There is a town-wide outdoor photography festival on at the moment with free-to-view galleries in seven locations. The theme is Music of all types so there are images of rock stars, classical musicians, rappers and breakdancers. I was a little disappointed that women musicians are almost completely absent other than in the classical gallery. The classical had the most inventive and entertaining images too. If you're anywhere nearby, the Vannes Photos Festival is on until the 12th May.


We parked up in a paid-for motorhome aire at Conleau on the coast which was perfectly situated for the bus into Vannes town. It wasn't the prettiest aire, but is in a lovely spot for coastal walking - and we could have walked into Vannes and back had we been healthier! The aire is one of 160 in the same group, Camping-Car Park, which we didn't know until we got there, and we now have a membership card so we can easily stay at any of the other locations too.


In bookish news, congratulations to Rebecca W who won the signed PBs of The Melt Trilogy to celebrate the publication of Listen To The Birds by K E Lanning!
If that's not you, there's more Literary Flits giveaways to enter ...

Giveaways closing soon
26th Apr: Win a $15 Amazon gift card to celebrate the Writer Get Noticed! by Colleen M Story blog tour
28th Apr: Win an ebook copy of An Empty Nest by Sandy Day
(All current giveaways here)

On my blogs this week were:

Stephanie Jane
Book Blogger Hop - Do you check how many views your posts have received?

Literary Flits
When the Pipirite Sings: Selected Poems by Jean Métellus review
A Change Of Time by Ida Jessen review
Fatboy Fall Down by Rabindranath Maharaj review
One Hundred Years Of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez review
Wolf Winter by Cecilia Ekback review
We, The Survivors by Tash Aw review
The Stars in the Night by Clare Rhoden review + #Giveaway

Have a great week!




Sunday, 7 April 2019

Bristol #StreetArt and getting #GasIt for our Hymer Motorhome

I'm linking up with The Sunday Post at Caffeinated Reviewer.

It's been much longer than I thought since my last weekly roundup post. Sorry about that! I'm still way behind on returning blog comments although 'making progress' as they say, and I seem to have managed to suddenly be several ARCs overdue as well. It's amazing how time rushes by when I'm not paying attention!

We're in the UK at the moment and spent last weekend in Bristol. I took the two street art photographs while we were in Stokes Croft which is a fab bohemian part of the city these days. We wandered through and then headed for Gloucester Road which I was told is the longest street of independent shops in the country. I bought a gorgeous new-to-me vintage skirt for just £8!



Just prior to Bristol itself, we had an appointment to get a GasIt system fitted in our motorhome. What this means is that instead of having to lug heavy gas bottles around to exchange them every time they're empty, we can now just refill two permanently plumbed-in bottles at any petrol station LPG pump. Hopefully this will work out to be much easier, more convenient and even cheaper in the long run. It does away with that problem of every European country having non-interchangeable gas bottles too. Now we just have a small bag on pump adapters which we've put into a Safe Place (never to be seen again ;-) We got the work done at GetGas and were very pleased with the service and the price so I am happy to recommend this company!


Hare Art Print by
Jen Buckley Art 
In blogging news, I was surprised this week by a unexpected burst of enthusiasm for a Top Ten Etsy Finds post I first published about this time last year. It seems as though everyone is suddenly mad for handmade March Hares. They are all beautiful creations! This reminded me how much I used to enjoy curating these arty posts so I'm hoping to get back to doing more of them.


Giveaways closing soon
11th Apr: Win a paperback copy of Lanterns In The Sky by P S Malcolm
11th Apr: Win a £15/$15 Amazon gift card to celebrate the Culmfield Cuckoo by Celia Moore blog tour
11th Apr: Win a $25 Amazon gift card to celebrate the Bulwark by Brit Lunden blog tour (post on 8th Apr)
12th Apr: Win a copy of From An-Other Land by Tanushree Ghosh plus 1 winner will also get a $20 Amazon gift card

(All current giveaways here)

On my blogs this week were:

Stephanie Jane
A Month In Books - March 2019
March Reading Challenges and Bookish Bingo
#WorldReads - Five Books From Colombia
Book Blogger Hop - Which fictional character would you like to be?

Literary Flits
Still Alice by Lisa Genova review
Lanterns In The Sky by P S Malcolm spotlight + #Giveaway + Excerpt
From An-Other Land by Tanushree Ghosh review + #Giveaway
Listen To The Birds by K E Lanning spotlight + #Giveaway + Excerpt
The Other Americans by Laila Lalami review
Love + Life + Death by Hezron Henry review + #FreeBook
Culmfield Cuckoo by Celia Moore spotlight + #Giveaway

Have a great week!


Sunday, 17 February 2019

From Gelves marina to Presa de Beznar embalse

Gelves Marina 
I'm linking up with The Sunday Post at Caffeinated Reviewer.

I struggling to get my head around it not yet even being a week since we left Sevilla after our weekend there! It hasn't felt like a particularly busy week, but we seemed to have crammed a lot into the time. On Monday we returned to Gelves Marina where we had left our motorhome. We were parked up between the marina basin and the river with boats either side of us. It's a fab location for visiting Sevilla - the bus takes about half an hour and costs just €1.60 each way and the marina parking is €12 per night without electric hookup.

Tuesday saw us driving to Olvera and their municipal Pueblo Blanco campsite. Situated up on a high plateau, it had long views across the countryside but, probably due to the time of year, was ridiculously windy. We managed to get one reasonable walk in but, despite having gone there for the Via Verda cycle path, our bikes stayed put on the bicycle rack! We stayed three nights in the hope of the weather easing before we gave up. A shame as it was a nice campsite, albeit a bit pricey at €18 per night.

We had Olvera campsite pretty much to ourselves! 

Our destination for Friday was the Presa de Beznar embalse - a free motorhome parking spot on the edge of a dammed up lake. There are absolutely no facilities here because it isn't a campsite as such, just a place where motorhome parking overnight is allowed. It's beautiful! We thought we'd only stay one night, but actually stayed there for two - the sun being higher in the sky than at Messines in December means our solar panel charges up much better. We had a great walk aross the top of the dam - scary for height-phobic me! - and then down into the river valley from where we could look up and appreciate just what a feat of engineering it is. We saw and smelt lots of wild rosemary which got me thinking how I should pick a little for delicious fresh rosemary tea. We gleaned a handful of leftover almonds too. The trees are in blossom now so last year's nuts definitely won't be part of any harvest. We need to add nutcrackers to our travelling kitchen utensils though. The two almond shells I did manage to open yielded perfect nuts with an unbelievably strong flavour!

Dave by Beznar lake 


In bookish news, I've just finished (about 20 minutes ago!) reading Lost Children Archive by Valeria Luiselli. Wow! Just wow! I don't think this is one that will appeal to a wide readership, but I loved its dense prose and stream of consciousness style. I had thought that The Night Tiger by Yangsze Choo was probably going to be my Book of the Month, just ahead of The Swooping Magpie by Liza Perrat, but now I have this other contender as well. 2019 is shaping up to be a great year for bookishness :-)


Giveaways closing soon
None closing this week
(All current giveaways here)

On my blogs this week were:

Stephanie Jane
Books From The Backlog - Above The Bridge by Deborah Garner

Literary Flits
The Sign of the Serpent by Majanka Verstraete spotlight + #Giveaway + Author Interview
Love In The Time Of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez - vintage review
The Unwinding Of The Miracle by Julie Yip-Williams review - cancer non-survivor memoir
The Ghostly Father by Sue Barnard review + #Giveaway - Romeo and Juliet retelling
One Last Prayer For The Rays by Wes Markin spotlight + Excerpt
The Night Tiger by Yangsze Choo review - Malaysian weretigers!
The Migraine Relief Plan by Stephanie Weaver spotlight + #Giveaway + #VeganRecipe

Airing Out
None this week - must post soon before I start to forget where I've been!

Squint and you might just make out motorhomes above the dam wall 
Beznar dam from t'other side 

Monday, 11 February 2019

Our Weekend in Sevilla

View from the Setas sculpture 
I'm linking up with The Sunday Post at Caffeinated Reviewer.

We're both pretty exhausted today after a long weekend exploring the gorgeous Spanish city of Sevilla. Dave's family flew out from the UK so we rented a lovely Airbnb apartment for everyone. It's five years since Dave and I last visited Seville so there were a few places, like the amazingly tiled Plaza de Espana and the beautiful historic Real Alcazar, that we were keen to share. This time around we also toured the Setas sculpture - huge wooden mushrooms with a skyline walkway around them! - and got to see a stunning dance show at the Museo de Flamenco.


A significant proportion of our time seemed to be spent sampling delicious tapas and simply wandering around soaking up the Spanish sun and atmosphere. Perfect! A few foodie recommendations for your own Seville visit, should you be planning one, are:
Bar Patanatas - for good traditional tapas.
Arte y Sabor - a fusion restaurant with a great choice of vegan or vegetarian dishes as well as a meaty menu.
Cafe Piola - for the best hot chocolate, plus cocktails and excellent cake for Dave.
El Paladar - a tiny restaurant so get there as they open if you can. Amazing stacked vegan burger and excellent vegan lasagna, plus good meat menu too.
Of all the places we stopped to eat, I think El Paladar was my favourite. It's got a brilliant atmosphere and the waiter's explanation of the menu (mostly in English, occasionally in mime) was great fun!


In bookish news, Reem at Kotobee got in touch this week to let me know about the book fairs section on their blog. Apparently every international book fair is listed here and it looks like we could spend the whole year doing nothing else but touring them!


Giveaways closing soon
11th Feb: Win an ebook of The Night Knight by C H Clepitt
14th Feb: Win an audiobook of Ink by Jobie Baldwin
14th Feb: Win a $10 Amazon gift card to celebrate the publication of A New World - Contact by M D Neu
16th Feb: (post 14th Feb) Win a signed copy of The Ghostly Father by Sue Barnard

(All current giveaways here)

On my blogs this week were:

Stephanie Jane
January Challenges WrapUp and Bookish Bingo
#WorldReads - Five Books From Northern Ireland
#Veganuary Food Diary - Week Five and Wrapup
Cover Characteristics - Swimming

Literary Flits
How To Create A Vegan World by Tobias Leenaert nonfiction review
Salt of the Earth by Jozef Wittlin historical fiction review
A New World - Contact by M D Neu Spotlight + #Giveaway + Excerpt
How to Lose a Country by Ece Temelkuran nonfiction review
White Walls And Straitjackets by David Owain Hughes horror review
The Swooping Magpie by Liza Perrat historical fiction review
Love In No Man's Land by Duo Ji Zhuo Ga romantic epic review

Airing Out
None this week

Alcazar palace ceiling 
Tile motifs in the Alcazar 


street art in Sevilla 


Sunday, 3 February 2019

In the Donana National Park

I'm linking up with The Sunday Post at Caffeinated Reviewer.

We arrived in the Doñana National Park on Friday afternoon, a huge protected area of pine forests and sand dunes. Our current campsite is about 5km from the little town of Hinojos (which translates as Fennel). We cycled to and around Hinojos this afternoon along the dedicated off-road cycle path and spent three hours yesterday hiking in the National Park. We plan to stay here until Wednesday although, on arrival, we weren't even sure we'd last 24 hours. Our magic internet gadget Doesn't Work. Quelle horreur! Fortunately the Donarrayan Campsite has good wifi, but it's pricey so we're sharing an access code. My being quiet(er) online over the next few days will be due to this.


Music news: one of my favourite singer-songwriters has a new Kickstarter currently running. I've only seen Peter Mulvey play once - at the Lewes Con Club supporting Birds Of Chicago - and it's high time he got himself back over to Europe for a tour!


In bookish news, congratulations to author Erato who won the Literary Flits Spotlight Post giveaway this month for her historical fiction novel The Virgin And The Bull! I'll be posting that Spotlight on the 22nd Feb, I think. Any authors reading this, add your own book links to the giveaway page to enter next month's draw.

And thank you to Terry Tyler for tagging me in #7books over on Twitter. 1 book I've loved per day, just posting the covers. If you don't already follow me on Twitter you can Do So Right Here!


Giveaways closing soon
3rd Feb: Win a copy of Oh What A Pavlova by Isabella May to celebrate her The Cocktail Bar blog tour).
7th Feb: Win a 4-seat dinner at HiR Fine Dining in Costa Rica (value $580) or win a paperback or ebook copy of Accessible Fine Dining by Noam Kostucki.
Win one of three copies of Piggybacker by Mikki Noble.
Win copies of Melding Spirits by Michael E Burge and $20 Amazon gift cards.

(All current giveaways here)

On my blogs this week were:

Stephanie Jane
#Veganuary Food Diary - Week Four
State Of The ARC - January 2019
Books From The Backlog - White Walls And Straitjackets by David Owain Hughes
A Month In Books - January 2019

Literary Flits
The Night Knight by C H Clepitt review + #Giveaway
Piggybacker by Mikki Noble spotlight + #Giveaway
Melding Spirits by Michael E. Burge spotlight + #Giveaway
The Judgement Of Richard Richter by Igor Stiks review
The Cocktail Bar by Isabella May spotlight + #Giveaway + Q and A
The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O'Farrell review
Ink by Jobie Baldwin spotlight + #Giveaway + Excerpt

Airing Out
None this week