Hayley Maudsley - My Smoko Break: Beautifully simple recipes for delicious home-cooked food without the fuss from a rural mum

Thank you, Brigitta and Candyce, for backing this book, and also John and the kids, whom I cant overlook. Please sit down and enjoy the stories Ive told, And use the recipes when yours are getting too old. My Smoko Break Facebook is where youll find me keep in touch, Ask a question, or just say hello when life just gets too much. Hayley xx Contents My name is Hayley Maudsley and I live in rural Queensland. Im a lover of storms, shopping, fresh clean sheets, photography, pink, dad jokes, gardening, event planning, sewing, organisation, tea, rain on a tin roof, craft, wine and, of course, baking. Im a mother to Heidi, Angus and Charlie; wife to John.

I like to stay busy and always have a project on the go. Im an ordinary mum living an extraordinary life. I was born in Toowoomba, Queensland, but my parents raised me and my younger brother on rural properties until I was 17. After I left school, I did a retail traineeship at Roma. Some advice my parents always gave me was to have a qualification and/or a trade to fall back on throughout life. This is something that Ive always stood by.

During my time in Roma, I was fortunate enough to have an employer who was very much involved in the community. I was encouraged to enter quests, such as the RSL Girl in A Million Quest, and the local showgirl quest, both of which I won. Thanks to these opportunities, I met many beautiful people (several of them remain friends) and gained a better understanding of the community and generosity of people, in both the country and the city. It also gave me the confidence I needed to speak in public and to spark conversations with strangers. When I moved on from Roma, I worked for an organisation called Frontier Services, travelling three weeks at a time around remote properties in Queensland and the Northern Territory, looking after children to give mums a break. It was fantastic and I loved it a perfect way for a young girl to see the countryside and meet some lovely down-to-earth people.

After this stint, I moved back to my hometown of Chinchilla to work in real estate, and then on to Moura to work in the livestock industry there. Moura is where I met John, as he had cattle on properties up there. Our weekends were spent mustering with helicopters and on horseback, followed by yard work. Three years after I met John, we made the decision to purchase the property we now live on. Here we began the second chapter of our lives. We were married in 2009 and started our own family in 2011.

Having children is the best accomplishment in my life. Its hard work, its rewarding and its very satisfying to watch your children develop, learn and grow. John is a very hard worker and provider for the family. He is often away between properties in southwest and southeast Queensland, but he always supports us. John enjoys flying as a pastime. He used to take me on joyflights in his microlight trike, and he is currently rebuilding a gyrocopter.

We enjoy our family holidays at Mooloolaba each summer. Its a reward for all our hard work throughout the year. John cannot have a day off at home because theres always a job to do, and he is just not the type to have a lazy day. So, its best to go away if we ever want a break. *** In 2013, I was a new mum for the second time and had a toddler at my feet. Living on a wheat property in southwest Queensland can feel a bit isolated, although I always had a job to go to at the local school.

While enjoying a cuppa and a piece of slice (a smoko break) on an autumn day in April 2013, I was thinking about what to make the family for dinner. I turned to Facebook for some inspiration. I scrolled around for a bit, gave up, then walked away and made a trusty family standby: garden salad, T-bone steak and some oven-baked chips. No good came of my research that day because all I saw on the internet were perfectly portioned dinners, with beautiful crockery, superb fresh garnishes, and some ingredients that I had never heard of. I thought to myself, where is the real food? There was nothing to see apart from staged food, professional photography and perfect lighting. Surely I was not the only stay-at-home mum who thought the same way.

So I spent the night thinking of a solution. Starting the next day, I began to share some favourite recipes, hints and tricks and some creative food ideas for the kids with my friends on my personal Facebook page. Encouraged by the response, I then set up a public Facebook page titled My Smoko Break. I know from the interactions I have on my Facebook page that Im definitely not the only stay-at-home mum who enjoys practical cooking. In fact, its not just mothers, its men, young home-leavers, grandparents, all sorts of people all over the world. Essentially, My Smoko Break consists of short stories of my life entwined with recipes.

For example, when its time to harvest our wheat crop, I might tell a story about the harvest that day and then detail a recipe that is a popular meal at that time of year. I would also include tips for household chores, tales of raising children, craft ideas, and things to make you laugh. I am a lover of quotes so I include them too. An inspirational quote can mean so much to someone. No one knows what anyone else is going through in their life and it just might push them through the day. Developing My Smoko Break does not take that much out of my day.

I often get asked, How do you do it all? Well, most of the work stems from caring for my family in a normal manner I just document it. I enjoy sharing; its a way of socialising for me, connecting with people, and also helping them. Even sharing little common-sense tips can help. Something thats common sense to me might be an entirely new concept to another person, so Ill share it on my page because it might make a difference to someone. I think what people like about My Smoko Break is the fact that I am an ordinary mother doing the best I can. And I know that people like my style of recipes: a cup is just that, a tea cup; a pinch is a pinch with your fingers it cant be measured better than that.

Throw in a bit of extra flour if the batter is too runny just run with it. Try the dish with your finger to see how it tastes. Cook with the kids; have them count out the frozen peas to put in the pot for dinner. Apart from doing My Smoko Break, in my spare time I enjoy taking the kids on picnics, or on drives through the paddocks on the mule we aptly named Eeyore, and maintaining and enjoying my beautiful garden. The kids love the outdoors, but they dont mind licking the beaters too! Thanks for the love and I hope you get a lot of enjoyment from my book. Hayley xx Serves 5 This is a recipe my nanna used to make.