A quick update to let you know I am still here.
The computer has made it home after being repaired.
We had an enjoyable Easter with a good mix of socialising with family and friends as well as catching up on a few jobs around the house.
Work is busy, life is busy and I am looking forward to the weekend.
I will do an update soon on what I have worn for the past 4 months. **Hint** – I have not bought anything so far.
Happy Easter!
The desktop computer will not be back in action until the middle of the week so I am struggling with and old laptop which is very slow and not responsive. However, I am determined to persevere and bring you a recipe for gluten-free hot cross buns.
Here is the original recipe which I used for the first batch which I made on Tuesday. The only alteration I made was to add another teaspoon of psyllium husk instead of the teaspoon of xanthum gum.
The initial prototype was acceptable but I felt I could improve on the recipe a little.
The instructions said that the recipe made 8 buns so I followed this and they were much too large for my liking. The buns also tended to spread on the tray rather than rise. Additionally, we prefer more spice and fruit. I made a note of this for my second attempt.
Here is my amended recipe with method and photos. Do not be put off by the long list of ingredients. I have divided the ingredients into separate sections accoring to the method.
GLUTEN-FREE HOT CROSS BUNS
Ingredients
1 cup sultanas
1 cup boiling water
7g dry yeast
1 teaspoon sugar
120ml warm water
24g psyllium husk
3 eggs
250ml hot water
3 cups gluten-free flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoons bicarb soda
1 & 1/2 teaspoons salt
75g sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 teaspoons mixed spice
Zest of 1 orange
2 tablespoons sugar
Juice of 1 orange
1 egg
1 tablespoon water
3 tablespoons gluten-free flour
Water
Method
Place sulatanas in a small bowl and cover with boiling water and allow to stand.
Combine yeast, sugar and warm water in a small bowl and set aside to activate.
In a another bowl combine the eggs and psyllium then add the add hot water and set aside to thicken.
Place a large bowl of hot water in the oven and turn oven to 100C. Set timer for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes turn the oven off and remove the bowl. This means the oven will be perfect for the dough to rise.
Place the flour, baking powder, bicarb, salt, sugar, spices and orange zest in a bowl and combine. Add the yeast mixture and egg mixture and mix thoroughly. Finally, drain the excess water from the sultanas and stir them into the dough. This step could be done by hand but I use my Kitchen Aid mixer.
Turn the dough onto a well-floured surface. Although kneading is not required for gluten-free baking (no gluten to stretch) you can gently roll and fold the dough a few times before dividing it into suitable sized portions. I weighed my balls of dough and chose to make them 75g each which yielded 17 buns.
Place balls of dough into muffin pans or on a tray and set the tray in the pre-warmed oven for 45 minutes.
While the dough is rising prepare the egg wash to brush the top of the buns by whisking the egg and water together. Make the mixture for the crosses. Blend together the flour and enough water to make a smooth paste which can be piped onto the buns. Place the flour paste into a plastic bag and snip a tiny piece off one corner.
Remove dough from the oven and turn oven on to 200C to heat while you finish the buns. Brush with egg wash. Pipe crosses onto the buns.
Return buns to the oven set at 200C and cook for 20 – 25 minutes.
Place the sugar and orange juice in a saucepan and simmer gently until reduced and thickened.
When the buns are cooked remove from the oven and drizzle with the orange glaze.
Ready to eat.
I was very pleased with the result and the final word comes from my friend who said that it was just like the commercially produced fruit loaf. This has inspired me to try baking this recipe as a loaf which could be sliced and toasted.
NOTE: The other variation is the type of flour used. The original rice uses tapioca and brown rice flour. I use my own mixture which includes both of these as well as potato and quinoa flours. You can choose a commercial gluten-free flour or you own combination as long as it totals 3 cups.
Apologies for the lack of posts but I am having computer issues at the moment. I will be back soon – I hope but in the meantime please browse through some of the older posts. I am sure you will find plenty of interesting posts from the last 5 years.
Please leave a comment if you enjoy a post some that it comes to my attention and I can either provide an update or simply revisit it so that others may also find it.
Some people work to a plan for cleaning. It could be vacuuming on Monday, dusting on Tuesday and so on or a room at a time. Perhaps a schedule of things to do on a weekly or monthly basis.
I do not follow any set routine but tend to do things as required or more importantly, when I have time.
Today was one of those completely unexpected cleaning moments. I was hanging out washing and noticed that there was some debris in the peg bag which hangs on my laundry trolley. So I tipped all of the pegs into a bucket of soapy water and washed them. Then I emptied all of the dirt and a mud wasp nest out of the bag and washed it, too.
Here are the pegs spread out to dry on an old towel.
You can see how much the fabric has faded even though the trolley and bag are always on the verandah out of the weather. The buttons were red originally as can be seen from the back of the button.
The bag replaced on the handle of the trolley and filled with pegs.
Some of the cane on the handle of the basket is broken and I am trying to decide how best to mend that. I will write a blog post about that when I get around to doing it.
Last weekend I was doing some general housework and I cleaned and polished this small table.
The furniture polish I use is a quantity of the cheapest vegetable oil I can find with a few drops of essential oil to create a pleasant odour. I use either lemon or lavender oil. I put a small amount of this mixture on a soft cloth (old t-shirts are good) and apply to the timber then rub it in and buff.
I washed and ironed the doilies and then replaced the ornaments.
I love this table which I have had for about 20 years and all of the ornaments are special to me.
I keep most things fairly simple but do not subscribe to the minimalist style of an almost bare room.
I prefer the mantra of, “Keep only those things which you use or love”. These are things that I love.
Tonight I want to share another dinner idea with you – risotto.
In no way could this be described as a recipe but more of a method.
Risotto is arborio rice cooked gently in a small amount of liquid. Keep adding liquid and stirring regularly unto the desired tenderness of the rice is reached.
I use my large flat-bottomed wok to make risotto.
Quantities for 2 adults (sometime there is enough left for 1 lunch).
1/2 onion, finely diced
1 teaspoon stock powder
3/4 cup arborio rice
Water
This will make the basic mixture to which you can add whatever you like. I used asparagus and sun-dried tomatoes.
Fry the onion in a little oil. Add the rice and toss to coat thoroughly. Add some water and the stock powder. Simmer and stir until the water is almost absorbed and add a little more water. Continue to do this until the rice is cooked and almost creamy.
I also added 2 teaspoons of powdered dried tomato with the water. Finally, I stirred through some sun-dried tomatoes and fresh asparagus cut into pieces and cooked for 1 minute in the microwave.
Serve immediately with a little grated cheese if desired.
Pumpkin and bacon, broccolini and capsicum (peppers) or sweet potato and caramelised onion are some other winning combinations. You can experiment with different flavours but I would advise only using 2 or at the very most 3 ingredients or otherwise the flavours become overwhelmed. The only thing I do not use in risotto is mushrooms – they turn the mix a fairly unappealing shade of grey!
No, I am not getting rid of my dishwasher but simply giving it a thorough clean. The dishwasher is a 2 drawer Fisher & Paykel which was installed about 7 years ago when we renovated the kitchen.
We regularly wipe over the inside and outside of the machine but had never taken the filter out of the base. Today I removed the racks, spray arm and the filters. I used a damp cloth to wipe off any scum and then dried the inside of the drawer with a dry cloth.
I cleaned the filters which had a small amount of scum build-up on the mesh using a kitchen brush and rinsed them in cold water.
Here are all of the pieces drying on the bench.
It was easy to reassemble the drawer and it is ready to use for another 7 years – or perhaps I will clean it sooner.
Whenever you dismantle something for any reason it is important to take careful notice of how it is put together to save any angst when you come to reassemble it.
It is interesting to note that despite the extended time of use the machine generally was quite clean. I think this is testament to the Kin Kin Naturals dishwasher powder that we use and that GMan is quite particular rinsing dishes before loading them in the dishwasher.
This is a timely reminder to maintain appliances to keep them in good working order.
Today marks the 5th anniversary of this blog – Organised Castle. WordPress sent me a message of congratulations this evening but I had remembered this morning when I checked back to the date of my first post.
It is interesting that I reach this milestone at a time when I have spent some time debating the future of Organised Castle. I am definitely planning to continue with the blog but am yet to decide on the direction.
Some blogs have a very narrow focus with quite specific content whereas mine tends to be a more rambling approach to whatever is foremost in my mind. Over the last 5 years I have covered topics as diverse as decluttering, my small wardrobe, gardening, menu planning, sewing, general organisation, cooking, green cleaning, preserving food and even some political commentary.
When I started the blog I made a commitment to myself to post every day in order to make it a habit. Sometimes I stick to this and other times there can be substantial gaps when life gets in the way. I have considered a less onerous schedule of perhaps 2 posts per week, however, I have decided to maintain the current random posting of whenever I have the time and something worthwhile to say.
While the frequency of posts is entirely my decision, I would love some feedback from you, dear reader, regarding the content. I have recently posted a number of posts with recipes and preparation of our dinners. These seem to have been popular and I am wondering if I should do more of this. What would you like to see in future posts? Anything I should leave out? I would love your feedback because although this is part diary it is also about sharing knowledge and skills and I want to keep it relevant for you.
I am looking forward to the next 5 years and what will unfold and time goes by.
When I mentioned in a Facebook group that I was preparing some meals for later in the week this one caught some attention and I have been asked for the recipe. Well, like many of my meals, recipe is a bit of a joke but I will do my best to explain my method.
2 large pieces of gravy beef in the slow cooker
1 onion, sliced spread on top of the meat
2 tablespoons worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons tomato sauce (ketchup)
200ml water
1 tablespoon tomato paste
Add all of the ingredients, cook on high for about 6 hours or until beef is tender and can be broken with a spoon.
I then divided the meat and gravy into 2 containers as this will make 4 serves – 2 meals for GMan and I. It is now in the freezer and will be added to the menu plan at a later date.
I usually add a little more water when I am reheating to make the gravy a bit thinner.
Now I will share what I really did.
The onion was frozen onion rings that I had done from a large bag of onions I bought some time ago. I used a handful which was roughly equivalent to one onion. Worcestershire sauce was not measured – just a splash of homemade worcestershire sauce and the tomato sauce and 200ml of water was achieved by rinsing out various almost empty bottles of homemade tomato sauce.
Finally, I tossed in a tablespoon of powdered dried tomato which I made from some of our glut of cherry tomatoes but tomato paste would be equally as good.
I am sure this ‘recipe’ would horrify the purists but it tastes great and when served with mashed potatoes and some other vegetables of your choice makes a hearty meal.
Well, it has been a little more than just the weekend, but I took a few days off from my blog.
Life has continued much the same as usual. During the week I go to work. On the weekend I go shopping to make sure that we have the food that we need. I plan and prepare meals for the week ahead. The washing and ironing and done and so the cycle begins again.
I made another quiche using the rice base that I wrote about last week. This also used up some more of the cream.
The meat supplies were low so I stocked up. One of the things I bought was gravy beef. I use this to make casseroles in the slow-cooker and one of my favourites is Braised Steak and Onions. I will do a separate post about this easy meal.
While I was catching up on general housework, GMan was busy outdoors. He set himself the task of digging up all of the lawn in the area were we are trying to establish a number of blueberry bushes. They seem to be struggling and I think it is because they are competing with the lawn for nutrients. So all of the lawn around them will go and we will mulch the entire area. As usual, nothing went to waste and the lawn has been re-homed in other areas of the garden.
The chickens really enjoyed the opportunity to scratch around in the freshly exposed earth and found lots of tasty morsels. Digging is their favourite activity and they never miss an opportunity.
