Planning Ahead

Over the past month I have gone back to cooking a lot of meals on the weekend so that they are there when we need them. I found we were eating too many take-away dinners. Not all ways in the "McD" sense but often grabbing a cooked chook and salad from Coles on the way home from work - or something of the sort.

This has added quite a lot to our food budget as you can imagine, every trip to the supermarket is $20-$30. And on an already (I think) generous grocery budget this had become a major expense.

Hence the reason I have started planning again. I have made and frozen meals such as chicken fried rice, rogan josh, chicken biryani, lasagne, casseroles (all sorts), curried sausages and savoury mince. All of these are easy to cook, can have as many veggies as you want in them and defrost very very well, making dinner quick and cheap. Cheap as now I am not doing a full grocery shop and then doing another in bits and pieces throughout the fortnight. Lovely.

Do you freeze ahead? What recipes have you found that freeze and defrost well?

Roly Poly

I was looking for a jam roll recipe when I came across this from Wesley's Grandma's Recipe Book -

A roly poly. I have only seen it before being made by Hugh Fernley-Whittingstall and that one had suet in it and was being steamed. This one is baked in the oven and has butter instead of suet.

This recipe has only 4 ingredients and one of those is water! How thrifty is that??? It's easy too. Stirring 100g of grated butter (freeze it before you grate it) through 1 1/2 cups of SR flour, then pour 1/2 cup of water in and when it starts to clump together bring it into a ball, roll out into rectangle, spread jam over (I used homemade plum jam) and roll up. Bake for 30 mins at 180 deg Celsius.  Easy and did I mention delicious?!!

I took it out to Mum and Dad's place where we had it with a bit of custard. Mum told me that the last time she could remember eating it was as a child though she did think they may have made it in Home Economics at high school.

In a baking mood yesterday morning I also did a loaf of bread to take out and these Banana and Caramel Choc Chip Muffins. Yum but not healthy.... well it does have banana in it so maybe..... yeah probably not!

I am planning to make sure I have more time to cook, bake and sew. Doing the things I really love doing, in between all the things I have to do will definately make my life more rewarding.

What's your favourite homey thing to do?

Day Off

Today has been my first rostered day off since starting in my new position. I have to work an extra 25 mins a day to get my day off but its really not that big a deal as I usually work till 5 anyway and have 50 mins instead of an hour for lunch. So I kind of get a day off every four weeks for working my usual hours.

I was up at 5.30 to see that Wes made it to the bus  on time as they are off to Ag-Quip. He isn't back until 7 tonight and will probably be very tired. Its alot of travelling in one day but Gunnedah is close enough that its not worth staying overnight.

I put some washing on, got tonights dinner ready and did the dishes, then went and had an extra hour in bed. Ahhhhhhh.

I spent this morning in the garden weeding. Not that you can really tell I spent all that time in there! But I do have the wheelbarrow as proof!

My winter garden has been pretty sad incomparison with last year. Everything has grown really slowly except for the first lot of broccoli which bolted really quickly.

I have just left them. They are pretty and the bees are totally loving them. I saw a bee that had so much pollen that I just don't know how he managed to take off!

I also made an orange cake with white chocolate icing which I got from Inner Pickles blog and is totally yummo. I will be using that icing on everything that moves.

Finally this afternoon Amelia and I pick some flower for the table. It is remarkable that anything grows in the front yard at all!

I am off to finish Radical Homemakers, what a great book, I highly recommend it to everyone.

Lemony Goodness

I love lemony things! Lemon scented soap, lemon syrup cake, hot lemon drinks for sore throats and lemon butter.

I have a massive bag of lemons and lemonades from my sisters tree (Thanks Linda!) and I put 4 lemons to good use today and made lemon butter (or curd if you prefer). The recipe I used is fro Hazel Dene and you can get it here. I used Mum & Dad's eggs too!

Four jars!

I also have a massive pile of weeds to show for my day today and that IS immensly satisfying. I pulled so much chickweed! Too bad I can't sell it! I have Wednesday off this week and am planning on spending at least a couple of hours out in the chickweed patch.

Yesterday I made a pioneer outfit for Amelia, looks better than I had hoped, but more about that tomorrow as I get my pioneer girl to model for me!

Hope you had a good weekend!

Stockpiling

This is something that I have been meaning to do for a while but hadn't until this week. I read about stockpiling originally on the Down to Earth blog and have seen it mentioned on a lot of different websites and blogs since then, it just seems so sensible and would definately put a stop to any supermarket dashes before dinner.

I cleaned out three shelves in my laundry cupboard and have just started filling them up. Still have a heap to put in but took a pic anyway to give you the idea of what mine is going to look like.

This should really help so I don't run out of anything, isn't it frustrating when you want cook something and one irreplaceable ingrediant is missing? Irritating, especially since it is your own fault you don't have it. So I am going to spend a little each shopping day on my stockpile.

Incidentally, I have about $15 of free money to spend next shopping day. I have $10 to redeem on my Flybuys and I did a Coles survey and printed off a $5 thank you voucher (though you do have to spend over $100 to use, but not a problem for us), you can actually do the survey once a month, printing off a voucher each time. $60 of free groceries over a year, thats not too bad. I am earmarking the $15 for my stockpile.

I also made a lovely frugal frittata for lunch today. Total cost was $2.90 so it was 73c a serve, not bad at all and it tasted really nice. I got the inspiration from here, though I changed it to suite what I had!

How was your long weekend?

Anzac Slice

I just had to share this great recipe that my Mum gave me which in turn came from a Cheapskates Club Tip email

Delicious!

It is for an ANZAC slice and from all accounts is yummy. This can be verified by the fact that everyone came back and asked for another piece! As I am recovering from an op at the moment this sort of thing is off limits to me but it didn't stop Amelia and I cooking it today - it smells divine. It is a nice soft slice which was a winner with Dave as he doesn't like the traditional harder biscuits.

These ingrediants all go in the one bowl, so start with the butter and melt it in your bowl first.

1 Cup SR Flour
1 Cup brown sugar
1 cup coconut
1 cup rolled oats
125 g melted butter
1 egg
2 tbsp golden syrup

Combine and press into lined pan. 180 c for 20-25 mins til golden brown. Let cool before cutting. Easy.

This Weekend

What a lovely weekend! A lot of sunshine, little bit of rain and a good lot of gardening.

Right in the middle of this picture is one of our escaped guinea pigs. They are living under the garage and, so we found out today, in the mower shed. Must be retiring there after dark. If we want to catch them we are really looking at getting a possum trap. I have started calling them Thelma and Louise.

Got an asparagus crown today and the run down from Shirley the garden guru from the nursery. The green will die down over winter and come back with spears about mid August. I have never had just cut asparagus but everyone assures me that it is soo much nicer than anything in the shops.

Red onions, lettuce and silverbeet in!

Red onions

Beetroot seedlings look a little down on their luck but should perk up in the next day or so.

First lot of broccoli is in and I am not even going to mention the first white cabbage moth I saw today.

Our house is coming along, I am still loving the colours we picked (lucky!) the only downer is that it rained just enough yesterday to put a halt to any more than a couple of hours of painting, I am sure the painters were even more disappointed then us!

I got the River Cottage Bread book out from the library yesterday and it is jam packed full of bready fabulousness! Dave made Roti at lunch time and it was super quick and tasty. The first couple were a bit crispy as they were cooked a tad long but he got it in the end!

What a Whiz!

Cooking

Yum!

It's All in the Name

Tonight I have made Pastitsio for dinner and will have a salad with it. Doesn't it sound lovely? You know what it really is? Beef Macaroni Bake! Sounds posh enough to be served at Aria!

I love my cookbooks, actually I love most cookbooks whether I have bought them or not, however there are a couple that just rub me the wrong way. The worst offenders are chefs/cooks who just keep bringing out book after book with nothing really new in them. Or the ones that fill the books with ingrediants so hard to find and/or expensive that most average joes can't afford them. Who wants to spend $50+ on one meal???

I am not a fan of Donna Hay cookbooks. Yes the recipes look gorgeous but that is just styling and its done exceedingly well. The recipes in general just don't appeal, though I know heaps of home cooks who love her books - aspirational maybe but certainly not inspirational, at least to me.

I also don't understand the Nigella love. Other than being excellent at using adjectives I don't feel that she is that good. Maybe that is it, folks can see themselves making her stuff. Hmmm still not feeling the love.

There are heaps that I love though like Bill Granger, Jamie Olivers early books and AWW (Australian Womens Weekly) books! Alot of my books are theme based rather than author based if you know what I mean? I found at least two books today that I would love, one is recipes for a High Tea/Morning Tea and the other is a great book with every Indian recipe you could ever want in it. They might just have to go on the Mothers Day list!

What cookbooks do you love?

Blast From The Past!

I have some great cook books that I hardly ever use. You know how you always seem to cook the "old faithfuls"? After watching My Kitchen Rules I decided to cook something different. Something I hadn't cooked a dozen times before.

I dragged out the 1989 edition of Australian Women's Weekly's Cakes & Slices and found the following recipe! It's delicious and even more so with a small bit of butter on it.

Moist Treacle Gingerbread

Ingredients: 3/4 cup plain flour, 1/4 cup SR flour, 1/2 t bicarb soda, 1 t ground ginger, 1/4 t mixed spice, 1/4 t ground cinnamon, 1/2 caster sugar, 1 egg lightly beaten, 1/2 cup milk, 60g butter and 1/2 treacle.

How To: Grease a 14 x 21cm loaf pan, line base and sides with paper, grease paper well. Sift flours, soda and spices into large bowl, stir in sugar and combined egg and milk. Combine butter and treacle in saucepan, stir constantly over heat without boiling until butter is melted, stir hot mixture into flour mixture. Pour into prepared pan. Bake in moderate oven for about 50 minutes. Stand 5 minutes before turning on to rack to cool. Enjoy!
It really is yummy!!

To Do List Done!

I am so happy that the three things I really wanted to get done this weekend are done and dusted! I even sneaked in another little thing I have been wanting to get to!Here is my Worcestershire sauce. It made about 2 litres which equates to 10 bottles of normal sized bottles of the sauce. Some of my bottles are bigger so I got 7 bottles of it but that should do us about 12 months as I am the only big user with the rest being added to slow cooker recipes etc.

Wesley's apron is done. He would only model it if I "cut off his head" - Nice mother to agree, aren't I? I like it as his will certainly be one of a kind in Food Tech.

Zucchini and Corn fritters made by Amelia with me helping. Dave loves them, Amelia not so much. Sh is not a fan of zucchini and I thought this might bring her around but alas it was not to be. At least we had fun making them and Dave and Wes will love them in their lunches.

Finally here is a bunny I have made for my nephew Evan's first Easter. He will only be shy of 6 months old then so choccy stuff is definately out. I got the pattern from here - http://blog.revoluzzza.com/2009/04/06/lets-sew-a-revoluzzzionary-easter-bunny/ , there is also a version with arms and legs but I thought this was okay. I am making a pink version for my niece as well, it was quick and fun to make.

Of course I have had the other jobs to do too, you know the crappy ones, washing, ironing, cleaning - but doing what I want in between that makes it ok - don't you think? Did you get all your weekend jobs done?

Tomato Sauce

On Monday I got home from work and got stuck into making some homemade tomato sauce, a first for me.

I got 3 kgs of tomatoes from my parents and the 500g onions were ours, plus added sugar and spices and cooked for four hours. You do need to keep an eye on it as it will stick a little if you don't give it an occasional stir. Sieved it all (which will also give you an upper arm work out - at least for one of your arms!) and reboiled for another 5 minutes, pour into your sterilised bottles and Daa Daa - Tomato sauce!!

I had Wes taste test it and he told me it was spot on! The recipe is yet another one from A Year in a Bottle by Sally Wise, though I left out the whole cloves because I am just not that keen on them and instead of just white sugar I mixed in some brown sugar too. I also halved the mixture as it calls for 6 kgs of tomatoes but if you could get hold of a box at the markets you could easily do it.

Refilling the Cupboard

Things were looking pretty grim when I went to the jams/relishes/pickles cupboard this morning. We were down to one jar of tomato relish from last years lot, 2 jars of marmalade, 1 jar of pear chutney, 1 jar of apricot jam, 2 jars of mixed berry and 4 small jars of strawberry jam. No pickles, no onion marmalade, no more beetroot (have we really eaten all of it already?) and no plum jam!! That cupboard is usually brimming with jars of yummies but through gifts and eating it has become quite sparse. Disturbing.

This afternoon I have added 7 jars of plum jam, 5 jars of tomato chutney and 4 jars of zucchini pickles. I hope to make the red onion marmalade tomorrow, I love that on everything. I will have to have a look at the grocers for some beetroot to pickle if not i will have a look at the markets next Sunday.

Do you have a cupboard full of yums? And how much do you keep on hand?

Garden, Cooking, Making

Here is Amelia's sewing machine, isn't it too cute? It works well too.

This material will be turned into some purses. I love the pattern. The red colour is more a cranberry colour and is gorgeous.

More zucchini and squash. I haven't got sick of it yet! Going to do a stuffed zuc come the weekend, should make a really nice lunch.

Grapes - somehow the birds have not gotten to them yet!!

Bertolli beans, this is the first time I have grown beans to dry and store. I am hoping it will be a good trial and one I may be able to expand on next year.

Wes made this self saucing pudding. Oh yum!! Saturday morning he is planning to make breakfast - Baked tomato with an egg inside, sounds good hey?

Oh thank heavens I can hear rain!!! The first rain of 2012.

Cleaning out the Fridge

Last night I needed to clean out the fridge so I got out the slow cooker! I went through and chopped up older vegies and tossed them all in with some browned mince. It cooked on slow overnight for tonight’s dinner – we love savoury mince!

Into the slow cooker went the last of the peas from Wesley’s Ag plot at school, from Mum and Dad’s place there was zucchini and green & yellow beans, our garden contributed carrots, onion, garlic, squash and capsicums. I’ve no idea where the tomatoes came from, either the market or
Coles I would say.

I have to say it is still gives a great feeling when the majority of a meal comes from the garden or rather gardens!

Vegemite & Cheese Scrolls

The kids last couple of lunchboxes have had their sandwiches returned in them. I think the heat is having a icky effect on the bread. So I found a couple of recipes and fiddled with them and made these tonight. They probably could look nicer but they taste delicious!!! The kids have approved them too! Yum!

Recipe -

3 1/2 cups SR flour

4 Tbsp butter

1 1/2 milk

Vegemite

Grated cheese

1 egg

Rub butter into flour til is crumby. Add milk and bring dough together, give a light knead on a floured bench. Roll out into a rectangle shape. Spread vegemite over pastry. Sprinkle cheese all over. Roll up from the long side and cut. Brush pastry with beaten egg. Lay on tray with cut edge facing up. In mod oven for 15 mins.

Jam

Strawberry jam is done. Smells and tastes delicious, I wonder if it tastes even better because we, as a family, picked the fruit ourselves this morning? I think so! I love jam making so much and can't understand how anyone could not. It is fun, rewarding and easy. And as long as you are using seasonal produce its pretty cheap too! Love It!

Strawberry Delights

Of course I just had to whip up some strawberry goodness with all that fresh produce to use!
These are strawberry and passionfruit muffins. This is the first time I have made them and they are delicious! Definately will make these again.

I also made this strawberry shortcake. First time making this recipe too and this is divine. Absolutely glorious.

Don't you just want a piece? The cake part is rather scone like in a very very good way and the strawberries are so flavoursome.

Mad Millie Mozzarella

This is my SECOND attempt at making mozzarella cheese. This first one was a complete disaster, though I do know why and it was completely my double boilers fault! I don't have a proper double boiler so I just stuck two pots together and unfortueately the pot slipped insided the other and brought the bottom of the top pot in contact to the water. Oops!!!Today was MUCH more successful. But there is room for more tweaking. The unhomogenised milk tastes awesome, and as a treat I would suggest everyone to buy it just to taste it! It is pricey though.

Here is my Mad Millie weapons of mass cheese constructions!

Cutting the curd. It went really well, though I think next time I will leave it another 15 mins or so to firm up.

Here is my curds draining. I got a bit too swish happy with my spoon and my slotted spoon was a bit small so the curds separated by falling off the spoon. But its all good.

My hot and cold salted water waiting to go!

My very unglam mozzarella ball.

But it taste's yum!

Also a happy welcome to the world to Evan Patrick!

First Go at Ricotta

For my birthday I was given a Mad Millie cheese making kit. It has the gear and instructions for mascopone, ricotta and mozzerella. Today I made the ricotta and later this afternoon I am going to try the mozzerella. Here is my first go at ricotta.One of the most time consuming bits is the constant stirring until the milk reaches 90c.

Then its just putting in the dissolved citric acid and giving it a little stir.

Waiting til it cools and popping it into the draining basket. This ricotta will be used in a spinach and ricotta canneloni for tomorrow nights dinner. Dave is making me the pasta from scratch and the spinach is our silverbeet from the garden!