Category Archives: Cooking

Edible & Spreadable

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What do you spread on your sandwiches?  Butter, margarine, something else or nothing at all?

I used to buy margarine without giving it a great deal of thought, however, about 18 years ago I changed to spreadable butter that I make myself.  My reasons are several:

  • Eliminate non-recyclable waste (margarine containers)
  • Health benefits (margarine is simply a chemical cocktail)
  • Easier to spread than pure butter
  • Know exactly what the ingredients are

2012-07-15 01This is the recipe.

SPREADABLE BUTTER

500g butter
250ml oil
150ml water
3 tablespoons skim milk powder

2012-07-15 02Allow the butter to soften but not melt.  Beat butter using a mixer or food processor.  Combine the other ingredients in a jug and stir well to dissolve the milk powder.  Gradually add the mixture to the butter while continuing to beat.  Beat for another 1 – 2 minutes until white and creamy.  Spoon into containers and refrigerate.  This made almost 1500ml so it is really quite economical.  Actual costings would depend on the type of oil that you use.

2012-07-15 03I generally keep one container in the refrigerator and freeze the rest because we do not use a lot of butter and it will go mouldy/rancid if stored for long periods in the refrigerator.  I use Pyrex glass containers as they can be put in the freezer and I am constantly trying to minimise the amount of plastic that I use for storing food.

2012-07-15 04This mixture can be used instead of butter in cooking and baking.  The only exception I make is pastry as I prefer to use ‘real’ butter for that.

The type of oil you use is entirely up to you.  I choose to use locally grown and produced organic olive oil which I buy in bulk at the Co-op in Maleny.  Olive oil does have a distinctive flavour so you may prefer something more bland such as rice-bran oil.  I do not consider canola oil as an option as most of the commercial crop is genetically-modified and I prefer not to use foods that contain GM products.

This is not a totally zero-waste exercise but it is certainly better than all of the margarine containers that you would otherwise use.  I take my glass bottle to be refilled with oil.  The butter wrapper is used to grease baking trays or line cake tins and then goes into the compost.  I buy skim milk powder from Aldi in a 1 kg non-recyclable bag, however, I have recently discovered that I can buy this in bulk from Simply Good so will be doing that in the future.

My New Toy

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I had another post half written but I just have to show you my latest acquisition.

It is a cast iron Dutch oven that I bought from Aldi for $20.  Today we parked at Beerwah to catch the train so we could go to Aldi on the way home to buy some cat food, milk and ice-cream. Of course, while we were there The Duke had to have a browse at the items in the middle section (not food) and saw these.  Normally, I would have said that we did not really need one, but 2 days ago I had read this post at Down to Earth about making artisan bread in a Dutch oven.  So, we are now the proud owners of this.

2012-07-13 01Here it is with the lid off.

2012-07-13 03It is a 4 litre capacity so I am sure it will be used for reasons other than making bread.

2012-07-13 02This was an unplanned, spur of the moment purchase but I do not think I will regret it.

Shopping At Home

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In years gone by the phrase ‘shop at home’ usually referred to mail-order catalogues.  This meant that you could peruse the pages for your choice of everything from underwear to saucepans.  It was a service provided to people who lived in remote areas.  Imagine the excitement when the carefully-chosen and long-awaited parcel arrived from the city stores (Myer and David Jones) to families on outback properties.

Shopping in the comfort of your own home was also a driver of many ‘party plan’ and catalogue businesses.  These included Tupperware, Avon and Nutrimetics, to name but a few.

More recently, much of this shopping activity has been surpassed by buying online.  I have bought things online, but usually only after considerable research.  It makes shopping easy, so easy in fact, that I think some people have accumulated much more debt due to the ease with which they can part with their money or more likely, credit.

My shopping at home, today, was none of these.  I merely walked downstairs to my store-cupboard and replenished supplies which would otherwise have necessitated going to the shop.

2012-07-11 01This morning there was no cereal nor much psyllium husk which I have on my cereal.  So I headed to my cupboard and picked these two buckets.

2012-07-11 02Here are my pantry containers refilled.

2012-07-11 03This afternoon I ‘shopped’ again – this time for raisins and sultanas as I wanted to make a boiled fruit cake.

2012-07-11 04Having a store of staples means less trips to the shops which in turn saves time, petrol and opportunities to spend money on other items.  It makes sense to me to have a supply of goods on hand in case of a range of possible emergencies or disasters.  As well as food I keep a supply of other items such as toilet paper, toothpaste and soap.

Do you keep a stock of foodstuffs or other items?

Super Sunday

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Whatever I write tonight will not do justice to all that we have done today.  Miss O and Izz did not wake until almost 8am but it was non-stop until they went to bed at 8pm.  Who knew that 12 hours could be so exhausting?

We started the day with pancakes for breakfast then I did a couple of loads of washing and some sewing alterations.  First up I re-did the elastic in both pairs of pyjama bottoms.  Next was letting down the hem on Miss O’s dressing gown.

2012-07-08 01I also added ribbed cuffs and neckband to Izz’s pyjama top.

2012-07-08 02We left home at about 11.30 and went to a strawberry farm at Beerwah were you can pick your own fruit.  2 buckets and we were underway.

2012-07-08 03The girls very quickly figured out that the best ones were red right up to the top of the fruit.  Izz still needed reminding that it is best to pluck the fruit rather than clutching them in your hand!

I had packed a picnic lunch so the next stop was Glasshouse Mountains township and the park.  We had ham and avocado sandwiches, home-made sausage rolls with our own tomato sauce, home-grown mandarins and freshly picked strawberries.  The playground, complete with flying fox provided heaps of fun and games.

2012-07-08 04Then it was next door to the visitor information centre where the girls discovered a wall puzzle of different dinosaurs as well as an interactive history of the mountains on a touchscreen.  This centre is well worth a visit if you are in the area.

Finally, we headed home via a local fruit stall and chose a few things including a pineapple to use on our pizzas for dinner.

Later this afternoon, I made 3 batches of muffins and of course had lots of help.  2 batches were made with added berry yoghurt and coconut which I cooked in small patty papers and they will be frozen and used for snacks for daycare.

Dinner was pizza followed by strawberries, ice-cream and a pancake then it was showers and bed for 2 little people.  After a very busy day we had absolutely no arguments about bed and sleep.

They are not the only ones who will sleep well tonight.

I hope you have had a great Sunday, too.

Friday Favourites – Orange & Poppyseed Muffins

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I have tried various muffin recipes over the years and although they have been relatively successful I have never found one that suited what I was looking for.  Some were too sweet, too dry or just like an over-sized cupcake.

Here is a muffin recipe I tried quite recently but it has already become a firm favourite.  The basic recipe come from the book “Down to Earth”, written by Rhonda Hetzel who writes the blog of the same name.

ORANGE & POPPYSEED MUFFINS

1/4 cup olive oil
1 egg
1 cup milk
1/2 cup sugar
2 cups self raising flour
1 cup orange pulp
1/4 cup poppyseeds

Beat the oil and sugar, add egg and milk and mix thoroughly.  Add orange pulp and poppyseeds.  Finally, add the flour and combine gently.  Do not overmix.

Spoon mixture into prepared muffins pans.

Bake at 180C for 20 minutes.

I make these to use up the orange pulp from when I squeeze the oranges from our trees.  If you want to increase the orange flavour you could try substituting orange juice for some of the milk.  I have not tried this but might next time I make them.

I make 12 generous-sized muffins from this quantity.  The muffins also freeze well

The basic recipe suggests that you can add anything you like.  I have made lime and coconut, banana , cherry and coconut as well as apple and cinnamon using this recipe.

Now it is my turn to ask a question.  I would love to be able to make good savoury muffins with grated cheese, grated vegies and herbs.  Could I use this basic recipe and just leave out the sugar?

I look forward to your suggestions and ideas.

Hanging the Handle

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I had a Vileda broom with a detachable handle.  The idea was that you could buy replacement heads for it, however, by the time I decided that I needed a new head for the broom, they were no longer available.  I bought a new broom but the fact remained that I had a worn out broom head and a perfectly good handle.

I had read some time ago that the best way to hang home-made pasta to dry was over a broom handle resting between two chairs.  So I decided that my obsolete broom handle would now be my pasta drying rack.  The next question was where would I store it when it is not being used?

Since the handle will be used in the kitchen it seemed sensible to store it in the same room.  I fixed a hook to the wall of the pantry and hung the handle on it.  Now it is easily accessible when I am making pasta.

Close-up of handle

Here you can see it hanging just inside the pantry door.

Handle in pantry

It is only a small project but makes all the difference when things have a specific location and are easy to find when required.

Book Review – Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

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I have just finished reading the book “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle” by Barbara Kingsolver.  I had seen it mentioned at times on the Simple Savings forum but there was no real detail of what it is about so I had forgotten about it until recently when I finally remembered to download it to my Kindle.

This book was first published in 2007 and documents the attempts of one family to eat mostly local food for a full year.  It is a substantial book and full to the brim with detail and information so is definitely not a light read.  I think I will need to read it a few times to extract the maximum benefit from it.

I found some of the detail quite confronting at times, especially the descriptions of CAFO’s (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation) and the harvesting of the chickens and turkeys which they raised for meat.  This is not necessarily a bad thing as it forces us to examine our feelings about how our food is produced.  Out of sight should not mean out of mind.

Although it is written from a North American perspective there are many universal truths for everyone, no matter where you live.  By the time I had finished the book I was inspired with renewed enthusiasm to seek out as much local produce as possible.

During the course of the year, they travelled to Italy and also on a road trip north from Virginia, through Vermont and into Canada.  The local food that they ate and people encountered makes fascinating reading.

I also intend to apply the same principles to the food we eat during our upcoming trip to the USA.  Since we will be in the north-east states during late summer we will have an excellent choice of fresh food.  One of the things we had planned to look for is Farmers’ Markets in the cities and farm gate sales in the more rural areas.  My goal is to eat as much locally-sourced, organic and unpackaged food as possible while we are away but more about that another time.

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle contains numerous recipes based on seasonal produce which are also available on their website.

The book contains an engaging mix of passion, theory, humour and science related to a topic which is the essence of every one of us – our food.

I would strongly recommend that you read ‘Animal, Vegetable, Miracle’ and take the time to really think about what you are eating and how it came to be on your plate.

Shopping In The Garden

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This afternoon I went down to the garden and picked a bucketful of oranges, some mandarins, limes, perennial onions, grapefruit, chili and avocadoes as well as collecting 16 eggs.

Here is some of the haul.

2012-06-21 01Mandarins

2012-06-21 02Eggs

2012-06-21 03Ornages , limes, grapefruit, onions and chili in this bucket.

2012-06-21 04I set the oranges out ready to juice them.

2012-06-21 05These yielded 3.5 litres of juice and enough pulp to make 2 dozen orange and poppyseed muffins.

The juice is frozen in single serve (250ml) portions.

2012-06-21 06Here is the orange juice packaged and ready to freeze.  Once it is frozen I will remove it from the containers and place in double plastic bags for ease of storage.

I took a pack of grated zucchini (from the garden last summer) from the freezer and made a zucchini quiche for dinner.  While this was in the oven I made the muffins and a Lemon Delicious for dessert as well as roasting some sliced pumpkin ready to use on home-made pizzas tomorrow night.

The 2 grapefruit are prepared for The Duke for his breakfasts and the mandarins will be used in packed lunches.

The avocadoes are in the fruit bowl as they will take about a week to ripen.

I chopped the chili and onions and added to some cold rice.  Lime juice, oil and pepper made a dressing to toss through the rice and we had this and some carrot sticks and sliced mushroom with the quiche for dinner.

I used 9 eggs in my cooking and am left with 34 in the refrigerator.  Must be time to give some more away.

We are lucky to have a productive garden so it is important to make sure that we use what is available and store any excess so that it does not get wasted.

Lunch – Local and Leftovers

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I dislike seeing food being wasted, so whenever I am at home during the day my lunches can be interesting, to say the least.

2012-06-08 01Here is what I found for my lunch today.Clockwise from the top – last of the home-made tortillas from the freezer, some leftover coleslaw, a bell chilli, an avocado, spoonful of cold, mashed potato and the block of cheese.

The chilli and avocado are from the garden.  I then picked a perennial onion and a bunch of parsley.

2012-06-08 02The avocado skin had been nibbled by some of the local wildlife and there was dirt on it from where it had been lying on the ground but the inside was smooth, creamy and perfect when I cut it.

2012-06-08 03I spread the potato on the tortilla and then cut and piled all of the other ingredients on top, created a wrap and toasted it in the sandwich maker.

2012-06-08 04Here is my toasted gourmet wrap and a glass of lemon cordial.  I finished my meal with a mandarin from our tree.

What do you eat for lunches – at home or when you are at work?

Frugal at the Football

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Today we went to the football and were going to be out for most of the day and it was quite a cool day.  Last night I cooked up a big pot of pumpkin soup so that we could take some with us.

2012-05-26 01Here is what I got out ready to pack.This is a glass-lined wide-necked thermos which belonged to my parents.  I am not sure how old it is but probably nearly as old as I am.  It is perfect for keeping the soup hot.

2012-05-26 02I also used an old towel to wrap the thermos and an insulated bag.  We bought the bag at a supermarket in New Zealand when we were on holidays last year.  There are also 4 mugs and soup spoons.

We bought 6 rolls at a bakery near the train station for $3 and also took some muffins and apples from home.  The soup stayed hot and the warmth and nutrition was welcome.

We did not spend any money on food of average quality and inflated cost at the match so the only cost was our tickets.  There was also no waste created from disposable containers.