Banana Boats and hot chocolate

After dinner I noticed that the fire had died down a bit and that it had some lovely hot embers glowing. I thought it would be neat to wrap up some bananas in foil and pop them in to cook. I sliced them open and dropped in some drinking chocolate (recipe below), wrapped them up and put them on the hot embers for about 5mins.

Mmmmm....

I've never made these before - mostly due to the absence of tinfoil. I don't usually buy foil, but for some reason got some a few weeks ago, so it was nice to do this as a wee treat.

I have been making our own drinking chocolate for about 6 years now. When Nathan could no longer drink most of the store-bought drinking chocolates due to the gluten in them, I searched around the net for recipes.

This is a fairly standard one, and is good because the kids can make it up themselves very quickly.

Into a jar I fill 1/3 with cocoa, and 2/3 with milk powder (gives it a creamier taste adding powder rather than just relying on the milk in the drink). This mixture doesn't have sugar, so isn't very nice when it's made as a hot chocolate (but the kids don't mind it when they drink it cold), so we add sugar to taste if needed. If premixing and wanting to use sugar, I make it as 1/4 sugar, 1/4 cocoa, and 1/2 milk powder.

There are other blends that alter the flavour a bit - the addition of vanilla pods, or other spices such as cinnamon or nutmeg, and even chili for a Mexican hot chocolate.

Cleavers Lemonade

I have been meaning to make this for a while. I had read it over at Johanna's Wild Concoctions and decided to give it a go.

So we gathered plenty from our rather abundant patches growing around the outer edges of our backyard.

Got together all the required ingredients (I used the blender method and then strained it through a muslin cloth (spent its previous life briefly as one of Danielle's blankies until she found a preferred one that is now a grey rag!). This is now my herbal cloth that I have taken out with me to gently bundle together foraged herbs and thought it would be good for straining too (it dyed a deep green from the cleavers juice, so I then had to add more juice to dye the rest - just in case it doesn't wash out lol).

And the final result was very nice! The kids had a small glass each as well.

Eating the weeds

As I was reading through the last section of my Susun Weed book about violets it inspired me for tonight's dinner. I had already decided to make a leek and potato soup since I had a lot of leeks arrive in my vege box yesterday and the recipe I read was for a creamy leek and violet leaf soup.

The soup called for a cup of sweet violet leaves to be added and then some of the flowers sprinkled on top. I had heartsease flowers (Viola tricolour) and sweet violet leaves (although, not a cups worth) and here resulted my version of the Creamy Green Violet Soup.

Dabbling in green smoothies

These seem to be all the thing lately. I've been making them occasionally as we have the fruit to add in (they are tastiest with about 2/3 fruit to 1/3 greens). With my abundant patch of chickweed going on at the moment (and my reading up on the benefits of chickweed) I thought I'd use this as my "green".

So this is how we all drank a glass this evening...

1/2 pineapple

1 banana

Very large handful of chickweed

About a cup of water

Blend till smooth!

OK, so not so good on the food miles with using the banana and pineapple...but I sure saved on food miles and my own energy in producing the chickweed! In one part of my garden it grows in a perfect square where the chickens tractor had previously been.

Some of the benefits of chickweed (as well as being highly nutritious) are for chest congestion, asthma, bronchitis, whooping cough, chest colds, flu, weak lungs etc - Danielle has a very chesty cough at the moment so thought we'd give it a go. It's also good for urinary and bladder infections as well as digestive problems. It's good all-round weed that can be added to meals daily.

Chickweed Pesto

I've been meaning to make this for quite a while now but either forget about it, or not in the mood, or don't have any sunflower seeds (I make the cheap version using these instead of pine nuts) or forget to use them before the kids eat them all!

I first heard of making a pesto from chickweed over at Johanna's recipe blog Wild Concoctions. Then last night I came across a recipe in Susun Weed's book Healing Wise that I am currently reading. So the resulting recipe was a combination of the two...

1 cupful of chickweed
1/2 cup of basil (only I substituted in mint since I just can't seem to grow basil)
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
1 large clove of garlic
1/2 cup olive oil

Blend together. I would have added parmesan had I had any and it probably needed a little salt. However, the lovely creamy result was very nice!

Gluten free porridge

I've been reintroducing grains back into Nathan's diet over the past month and have been making him a hot porridge that is rich in magnesium (the rest of us have been having oat porridge (also magnesium rich) since the beginning of the year).

I make it in the crockpot that then allows the grains and seeds to soak and therefore releasing more nutrients and making them more easily available for absorbsion and digestion.

I don't have exact amounts, but I make a choice of 2 whole grains (quinoa, millet - can't recall the others I read about), 2 nuts (eg almond, cashew) and 1 seed (eg flax, pumpkin, sunflower) and mix together. I mix about 2/3 grain and 1/3 seeds/nuts.

Using a cup measure put 2 oz (about the 60ml mark) of dry mix from above and 5 oz (about 150ml mark) of water into the crockpot. Set on low over night. I usually quadruple the recipe and keep in portion sizes in the fridge to be reheated for his breakfast and served with a little milk.

A day of new foods

We've been on the GAPS diet for a month now and I've fallen into a rountine of regular meals that take minimal thought or effort. I no longer feel like I'm chained to the kitchen 4hrs a day or spending every waking moment thinking about the next meal or tomorrow and the day after.

I guess that's why I felt inspired to try a couple of new dishes today.

First up for lunch I wanted to try out the "pizza" recipe I found in the SCD book (I think?).

The base was made from grated pumpkin (recipe actually called for courgette but didn't have any), almond flour, eggs and cheese. Combined, pressed into a pie dish and baked till cooked. Then I layered on my usual pizza sauce and layered on cheese and baked for 10mins. Nathan liked it, but Danielle not so much (she ate the tomato and cheese topping). I would definitely try something other than the pumpkin in the base next time (or perhaps just a tastier pumpkin would do it).

Then for dinner I made a soup from my hot off the stove chicken broth - it was a bit of a flop which is a first. Nathan still ate it (this kid seems to enjoy all food lol) but Danielle didn't.

After dinner I put together a "baked honey apple slices" dish that I had from the SCD book. Oh wow! That was the tastiest thing I've had in ages. Apple peeled and sliced into a flan dish. Mix up 1/2 cup honey with the juice of one lemon (I used a big lemon). Pour over the apple and stir through. Sprinkle some cinnamon on top and dollop a few teaspoons worth of butter over. I then decided to turn it into a "crumble" type dish so mixed up some fine ground almonds with some desiccated coconut and sprinkled it over.

We decided that we have our birthday cake options sorted. OK, so not traditional cake and all that. But hey, we're far from traditional around here lol.

One child will have the homemade ice cream in a cake shape and the other will have an apple crumble. We figured we can get creative by decorating around the "cakes" (on a platter underneath the dish or something). Candles can still go in to each. Sounds pretty good to me anyway - hot apple crumble and ice cream.

More homemade

Well, I cooked up another batch of tomatoes this afternoon and came out with 5 servings for the freezer. Have had to move on to the upright freezer since I've got the underfridge one bursting at the seams. My tomatoes are definitely out-performing last years both in yield as well as size. I think we'll get them to last quite well especially since I don't seem to cook with tomatoes so much while on the GAPS diet (probably since I can't serve up pasta sauce on pasta at the moment which was a good staple meal a few times a week before).

I put another batch of yoghurt on as I used up the last 500ml for making some ice cream GAPS style.

2 cups of homemade yoghurt
1 ripe banana
2 tsp honey
1/2 tsp pure vanilla essence

It went down well, we'll see how it goes down when I serve it up for the kids birthday party in April lol*.

Today I also received some almonds I'd ordered through our organic co-op and decided to try out some almond milk. So I set a cup of almonds to soak in water for 8hrs.

I then drained them, added 3 cups water and blended till smooth. I drained it through a fine sieve and added a little vanilla essence (and popped the pulp into the freezer for using in baking). It tasted nice but slightly bland but I'm sure Nathan at least will like it. I am investigating growing my own almond trees (apparently you need two or there are some dwarf self-fertilizing ones available). To buy organically from the shop the nuts are $40/kg and through the co-op around $20/kg which is a significant difference but still pricey in the big scheme of things.

*I am also looking at how I can throw the kids a small joint bithday party as sustainably as possible (their birthday's are 6wks apart). I will be catering the food GAPS style and have quite a few yummy options so far but a few recipes that still need testing. I am looking at getting or making some little bright coloured paper lanterns instead of balloons that can be kept and reused another time, making a bunting for decoration, making some new funky table napkins instead of disposable and a few party games that don't include a bunch of junk for kids to take home.

Yesterday Nathan wanted to make his own scrambled eggs. He's been increasingly wanting to cook his own food (banana pancakes are becoming a bit of a standard recipe around here and then he figured scrambled eggs weren't so different). I did do a bit of extra stirring for him, but the rest was his work.



We also did a batch of fresh juice yesterday with the arrival of our new vege box. We used beetroot, apple, orange and pear. I was busy washing out the gear and turned around and saw this sweet little face playing with her image in the stainless steel of the juicer.


I picked these long forgotten and neglected carrots the other day. This lot survived the carrot fly but didn't get thinned hence the stumpy appearance. They were tasty though and the kids enjoyed munching through.


And wow, tomorrow is the last official day of summer.

By request...Lentil Patties

OK, so I'm not very specific with my recipes anymore, they are kind of a throw together and whatever is on hand gets used.

This was the original recipe though...

1 cup of lentils (I use red) soaked for 10mins and rubbed free of starch, rinsed well
2 carrots grated
1/2 cup parsley
3 spring onions
2 cloves garlic
1 tsp lemon rind
1 egg
1/2 cup breadcrumbs
Oil for cooking

Boil the lentils until cooked (red lentils only take about 10mins). I have been boiling mine up in chicken or meat stock and just cooking till they absorb the liquid (I guess I use about 500mls of liquid).

Depending on what you have on hand (I don't have any parsley at the moment and spring onions only sometimes arrive in the vege box) I will substitute in onion (which I will chop finely and saute till soft with the garlic), or silverbeet/spinach chopped finely or grated courgette etc. I don't use breadcrumbs but add in some nut flour to thicken slightly.

Combine all ingredients together and if it is a batter type consistency I just drop if off a spoon into the hot pan.

Homemade tomato sauce

AKA Ketchup

Just another one of those super easy, super quick recipes that I would never have thought to have made myself.

Since store bought sauce has sugar and a variety of other additives, I found a ketchup recipe in the SCD book that looked promising.

1 cup of cooked up tomatoes
1 tablespoon of vinegar
honey to taste

Whiz up and serve. I froze the rest into serving sizes.

OK, so not really much like the good old Watties Tomato Sauce, but a pretty good alternative when dinner calls for a sauce. I'm sure I can work on adding some spices (perhaps allspice as per the baked bean recipe?) etc to add a bit of extra flavour.

Tonight's meal was meat patties (with carrot, onion, silverbeet and garlic) served with honey-roasted pumpkin pieces and broccoli.

My head is in a pretty good space now with coming up with ideas for meals and easily whipping something up without wandering around the kitchen in a daze trying to figure out what to feed us all. I've got a pretty good standard base of recipes now and am quite happy that full on meaty meals still only feature about 3 times a week. We have upped out fish eating and have a couple of vegetarian meals a week too.

Making a batch of lentil and vegetable patties has become a bit of a standard "snack" for Nathan (Danielle's not so keen on them, but then he's the hungry one and she's happy with other alternatives without needing the "bulk") that also doubles as breakfast the next day.

A big ole batch of tomatoes

Today I realised I'd accumulated quite a few tomatoes that gave me enough to cook down to freeze. It was hosing down outside, so was good to have a few inside domestic duties to get into which broke me from the hum-drum of washing, tidying and cleaning.

Last year I made them into a tomato fondue which I used for pizza sauce, pasta sauce in spaghetti bolognese etc - but since I've found myself all "cooked out" recently, decided to just cook them down plain and freeze into portion sizes that I can flavour up later.

I got about 4 cans worth from this batch.

And the kids enjoying some freshly cooked tomatoes...

And while I was in the mood I set another batch of beans to soak overnight to make up tomorrow. Yay, looking forward to easy lunches around here again for minimal cooking. Even though I have no store bought option at the moment due to the extra ingredients, if I were buying organic baked beans by the tin this works out at about the same cost while I am able to use my own home grown tomatoes.

We tasted our new batch of yoghurt today and I found it had a lovely tart taste which when done with a shorter culture time seems to not have so much. So, so far a success.

Homemade Baked Beans

Finally got around to doing these for tonight's dinner. Totally not my kind of thing, so think I'll pass lol. But the kids enjoyed it and declared them just like the "other" ones.

I didn't have a few of the ingredients that most of the recipes called for like molasses and allspice (and I wanted vegan ones and most recipes seemed to include pork bones or something), so made do with what I had. Fortunately my kids don't mind plain food.

300gm haricot/navy beans well covered with water and soaked over night
1 medium sized onion finely chopped
3 cloves garlic
2 T olive oil
2 tsp salt
pinch of stevia powder (sugar for those that can eat it)
400gm tinned tomatoes

Drain the beans after being soaked overnight. Put into a large pot, cover well with water and boil for 30mins.

In a pan heat the oil, fry the onion and garlic until very soft, add the salt, stevia and tinned tomatoes and reduce slightly to a thick sauce. I whizzed it up with the stickwhiz to make into a smooth sauce. Add in the cooked beans and toss till coated and serve.

This was totally modified and most recipes called for baking it in the oven as well, but I wanted them to resemble tinned beans, so kept them like this. I now have a left over portion for the freezer.

I can't believe this is also the first time I've used dried beans for any recipe...but then we don't tend to eat a lot of beans anyhow.

GAPs Diet

So, today was the official 1st day where I have kept to the rules all strict and proper. I was kind of doing OK previously at different stages, but now my single "fast food" that was my saviour needs to be cut. Tinned baked beans. These have got us through the years with being gluten free - open up the lid, dump beans into bowl and hand to child - no heating even. Even portable when going on outings. But, the beans have a little sugar added as well as cornflour to thicken, so they need to go for now. The only other tinned items I am using is salmon and tomatoes until my own ripen.

I think I mentioned previously that we were advised Nathan had a mild egg allergy, however the paediatrician wasn't concerned due to him not reacting with it. After much research it seems that the test is not exactly reliable and no two paediatricians seem to agree what to do with results that come back as "mild". Since he is on steroids we aren't able to have allergy tests done because allergies are "masked" due the immune suppression. So best way is to do our own food eliminations, note for any subtle changes, perhaps protein even appearing on the urine strip that I do with him every morning.

Nathan is on the strict diet, me and Danielle are probably doing it 90%, and Simon maybe 70%. The three of us eat porridge or muesli with milk for breakfast and Simon is currently making his way through eating up what is left in the cupboards/freezer that the rest of us aren't to eat during the day - so he takes that for his lunches for now. As you can see, the meals are very random and kind of bitsy to fill him up while trying to offer a range of nutrients at each meal.

YOU MIGHT NOT WANT TO READ FURTHER IF YOU ARE VEGETARIAN

Yesterday's menu with only one tiny slip...

Breakfast: Apple slices spread with peanut butter (pure peanuts with only salt added)
Homemade ice block cubes made from fresh squeezed orange juice
Cashew nuts

Snack: 100% fruit straps
Banana (needs to be ripe to avoid starchiness)
Cod Liver Oil in orange juice and extra vitamin C

Lunch: Banana pancakes (mashed banana, egg, drop of vanilla essence and fried in olive oil)
Meat broth - about 2 tablespoons
Baked beans - a couple of tablespoons - but will be removed
Fresh tomato cubes, avocado and some tinned salmon

Dinner: Soup - homemade beef broth, lentils, onion, carrots, leeks, garlic, tomato.

Day 2...

Breakfast: Left over soup from last nights dinner - meat broth, vegetables, lentils
Scrambled egg without milk
Cashew nuts
Kiwifruit

Snack and lunch ran together: Banana pancakes, apple, banana, OJ with CLO, vit C and introduced some probiotic powder (1/4 tsp), salmon, fresh tomato, cucumber, avocado with lemon juice.

Dinner: Lentil patties (was going to just serve lentils alongside the meat dish but decided to make them into patties and incorporate more veges into the meal) - lentils cooked in chicken broth, spring onions, garlic, fresh herbs, carrots, lemon rind, leeks, eggs to bind, some LSA mix to thicken (ground linseed, sesame, almond) and cooked in olive oil - Nathan ate about six of these!
Bolognaise meat sauce - mince, tinned tomatoes, onion, carrots, spinach, olive oil.
Guacamole (had a ripe avocado needing to be used up) - avocado, tomato, lemon juice and chili powder.

More cooking-without-electricity supplies

(Still requires seasoning)

The other night when I was out, I picked up a camp oven that I've had my eye on for a while. I'm not too sure how I will get to use it since it seems to be best used over an open fire which doesn't really feature in my life lol. But I figure it will be useful no matter what I do with it whether it's on top of the cooktop of my woodburner or in my electric oven as a casserole dish and make up a part of my emergency supplies too!

Not having had ANY idea what to do with it when I bought it, I mentioned to my mum I had bought one and she asked if I knew what to do. Ummm, no...

Anyway, when she and my step-dad travelled around the Australian outback 7-8yrs ago for a couple of years, they used one quite extensively while camping in sites set up for open fires. So she explained how to build up the fire to one side in a pit, then transfer some embers over beside it, put the pot on and pile up embers on the lid. When those embers had died down (and meanwhile keeping the original fire burning) you transfer more embers into another patch and build up the previous embers again to keep things going.

Then googling tonight turned up this document with some New Zealand recipes using very basic ingredients and a "how to use your cooker".

Not even sure we're allowed to have open-fires outside here without a permit, so need to find out some info so we can trial this thing!

Failing all of that, I will see how it fares if I ever get around to making a solar oven... Looking forward to hooking up with Em and Johanna for a cook up!

(Runs off to retrieve cooker from car to take a photo and finds it REALLY warm from being in the car all day so reckons it might do well!)

Eating vegan

I realised tonight that our meal was a vegan one. We went through a phase a while back where a lot of the meatless dinners I was making were vegan due to the fact that dairy prices were really high (still are, but I think I'm over the shock and it's become normal...). Since I do the grocery shopping once a fortnight, and we are one day out from shopping again, we've run out of a few things. Dinner would have contained cheese on top if I had it, but due to none in the fridge, we went without. We also had no onions arrive in the vege box (must be the off season coz we haven't had any for about a month now and have just been chopping up extra garlic) I had forgotten how *clean* these meals feel to eat when there is the absence of animal products. I'm sure if we were eating vegan long-term that it could have been better balanced (to include some protein for example) with something like sunflower seeds or similar.

Rice noodles with roasted potato and kumara chunks, topped with a tomato sauce which contained tinned tomatoes, garlic, broccoli, fresh herbs and seasonings and covered with some asparagus' that arrived in our vege box today.

Just meandering along...

Have staked the tomato plants, tied old pantihose around them and been nipping off the lateral shoots to maximise my crop.

Simon made the broody chicken a special little coop which is now situated inside the main coop (a heavy wooden lid is just placed over the opening) and propped it off the ground to keep her bottom airy lol. Poor girl, I do feel a bit mean doing this, but feel just as mean dragging her off the nest squarking at me and getting her all anxious. So I donned some leather gloves and picked her up out of the nesting box expecting the worst but was a lot easier than I expected, I think she's been getting less fiesty as each day goes by. She was straight into eating and drinking. So I'll give it a few days and if all else fails, I will leave the gloves for my friend to retrieve the eggs from under her if need be.

Some of my potato plants are flowering already. Don't recall that happening this time last year.

Have put the final courgette and all my capsicum seedlings in the garden. Have sown more carrot and onion seeds in a spare patch vacated by some gone-to-seed silverbeet.

I have some lovely sized peas almost ready to harvest from my front garden bed.

Found a little crafting apron in my nana's things which I had bought home knowing it could be put to use somewhere. When I was vacumming the other day I decided to put it on so I could collect up all those random bits and pieces that get found all around the house in corners and under curtains.


I picked the kids some flowers from our garden the other night and popped them in their bath to enjoy. Afterwards we scooped them out and arranged them in a bowl that I've left sitting on the vanity - days later and they still look lovely.


Made another skirt for a wee friend of the kids who turned 3 on Saturday. Why can I not feel that it was "ok" to just give the skirt and felt the need to pump the gift out with something bought too...sigh...

Loving my easy to make and super quick mayonnaise (and gluten free since a lot of store bought ones seem to contain wheat) to add to potato salad (fortunately no pregnant friends to worry about due to the raw egg in it).

1 egg
2 T vinegar
1/2 t mustard powder
1/2 t salt
1/2 t sugar
1 cup olive oil

Whizz it all together and done! Add to cooked potato cubes and chopped boiled potatoes, add in some fresh herbs (parsley or mint are good) or spring onions.

A Simple Spring Day

We've had quite a bit of wet blustery weather (and yesterday had a cold southerly coming up which added an icy feeling to the air) that has kept us inside a lot and meant racks of wet washing sitting inside the house for a few days (and the days I could put them out on the porch the air was too damp to dry anything anyway).

Yesterday evening I checked the weather report for overnight temperatures and noted that it would get down to 4 degrees and that the wind had dropped off and the sky had cleared to a perfect blue - so not wanting to risk losing my potato and tomatoes we went down and covered everything over with a bale of straw that we use for the chickens nesting box. There was no frost, but I slept better knowing that it wasn't of concern.

So we welcomed the sun back today and just a gentle breeze to air the house out again.

The chickens were out for ages in the potato patches - scratching, dust bathing and basking in the sun.

Nathan had woken with bright ideas jumping out of his head lol - he retrieved a mug from the freezer that he'd frozen a toy dinosaur in the day before, removed it from the mug and spent a while smashing it from its icy surrounds. He was then keen to make a dugout in our dirt bank. So, he and Simon set to digging out a hole - of course, the bank wasn't really big enough to do much with, but he's now keen to put something inside it and rebury it.

The kids had fun collecting up the straw and leaping in it and pretending to be baby birds. Then gathered some lettuce and beetroot from the garden for lunch.



I caught up on more laundry and made lunch to enjoy in the sun.


The kids came in from the sun and sat down to draw for a while...

Simon took the kids down to the beach in the back of the bike trailer while I decided to make a gluten free pumpkin pie for dessert to take with us to my parents...

Now find other uses for the rest of the pumpkin. Still not halfway through it. I think we'll be having pumpkin soup tomorrow night.

Pumpkin Pie

sweet pastry:
175 g all purpose wheat free or gluten free flour (use appropriate flour depending on dietary needs)
100 g butter, softened (plus extra to butter the tart tin)
2 tbsp sugar (unrefined preferred)
1 large egg yolk
1 tbsp water

filling:
225 g pumpkin flesh, mashed if fresh (alternatively use tinned)
50 g sugar (unrefined preferred)
½ tsp mixed spice
1 large egg, beaten
185 ml evaporated milk (we used Carnation Light)

preheat oven/initial cooking temp: 220°C, fan 200°C, 425°F, gas 7
reduced heat after 15 mins cooking: 180°C, fan 160°C, 350°F, gas 4

1. Lightly butter and dust with wheat free or gluten free flour a 20cm (8") tart tin, if it has a removable base then it will be easier to remove the pie from the tin when cooked.

2. Into a large mixing bowl put the wheat free or gluten free flour, softened butter and sugar. Mix together until it resembles large breadcrumbs. Add the egg yolk and water and knead into a smooth ball of pastry dough. If the pastry appears too dry and crumbly then sprinkle with a little more water until it makes a smooth ball.

3. On a lightly floured surface (again using wheat free or gluten free flour) roll the pastry out to a size large enough to completely line the tart tin including the sides, trim the edges to neaten the pastry. You may find that the pastry is too fragile to roll out, in that case simply press it into the tart tin using floured hands, then trim the edges.

4. To make the filling place the sugar and spice into a large bowl and mix together. Add the pumpkin flesh and mix until well combined.

5. Add the beaten egg and mix until well combined. Then stir in the evaporated milk. You should now have a smooth batter.

6. Pour the pumpkin batter into the pastry shell, you can fill the pastry full as the batter won't rise, and put in the oven at the initial baking temperature shown above. After 15 minutes reduce the oven temperature to the lower temperature shown above and bake for a further 30-40 minutes.

7. Check how the cooking is progressing after approximately 25 minutes (at the reduced temperature) by gently slipping a thin knife or skewer into the centre of the pie. If the pie is still very runny it needs further cooking. The pumpkin pie is ready to remove from the oven when the filling is set all the way to the centre of the pie.

8. When fully cooked remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tart tin, serve at room temperature or cold. The pumpkin pie should be stored in the refrigerator.

Cheese!

Finally, I managed to find myself some rennet today when we went to a different supermarket. So this afternoon we decided to give it a go.

I was surprised at how super easy and quick this was to do. I used the Mozzarella recipe from the Animal, Vegetable, Miracle book.





The result...homemade pizza (not that I'd planned on having make up a pizza base today, but there you are). I didn't salt it, but would definitely do so next time.

This is why the list never gets shorter!

The research list!

So, I knock one item off the list (the corn) and before I know it, another has been added.

The most recent being cheese.

Last year when I read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver I was as keen as to try making my own Mozzarella.

Only problem was is that I didn't own my own thermometer and the candy thermometer one friend had only started at higher temperatures than what I was after. After a little research at the time, I came across a few online places that sold cheese thermometers (there was nothing available in my town) - but I was loathe to spend a lot of money on a thermometer specifically for one job and didn't know how keen I'd for a long-term investment.

However, tonight I went to one of those upmarket kitchen-ware parties and they had just the thing. A thermometer with a probe that ranges right through all temps, good for going in the oven, good for just taking the room temperature and also a timer - I like multi-purpose.

So, while I wait for it to arrive I will ensure I have all the ingredients I need to finally give this a go.

Homegrown meal #5

Well, I'm feeling pretty good that I'm easily coming up with meals made from ingredients readily available in New Zealand. And interestingly, these are all favourites - so I guess I've been making my way towards eating locally even though I wasn't all that conscious of it. Sure we eat lentils, rice, split peas and polenta which are all imported - but they certainly don't feature as regular meals anymore.

Tonight's meal was Fish Pie.

We don't eat fish often, but when we do, this is what I turn it into.

300-400gm fresh fish
2 boiled eggs
6 boiled potatoes
1 cup corn kernels (I use my own frozen ones from my autumn harvest - but have now run out)
1 spring onion
1/4 cup parsley
3 T flour
3 T butter
1.5 cups milk
2-3 T cheese

Boil up the potatoes and eggs together. Remove the eggs and mash the potatoes (if I have pumpkin I'll do a 50/50 with pumpkin and potato).
In a pan, melt the butter, add the flour and let bubble for a few seconds. Add the milk and stir till a smooth white sauce. Add in the fish, corn, parsley, spring onion and the chopped up boiled eggs.
Once all cooked through, put into a casserole dish, top with mashed potato and sprinkle the cheese on top and bake for 20mins.

So, out of my 5 meals listed here to date, 2 are vegetarian - I haven't listed out all the soups that we also eat which are vegetarian (and most often vegan)...borscht, potato and leek, spinach and potato, cabbage and potato (note the potato theme lol) not to mention the many other vegetable combo's I haven't tried out yet.