Tacos, and Macaroni & Cheese

Its stocktake time at hubby's work, and I can't be bothered to cook a full-on dinner for myself and the kids, so tonight, I'm falling back on an old favourite.

When my husband and I were living in our apartment in California, we didn't always eat the healthiest food. We had a very low income, I couldn't cook anywhere near as well as I can now (partly a confidence issue, partly a complete and utter lack of experience), he worked late, and I was pregnant and therefor having severe problems with what I could actually keep down. Subsequently, a substance called "Hamburger Helper" became a regular in our menus. (For non-Americans, 'hamburger' is the same as mince/ground beef. "Hamburger Helper" is like mac&cheese, with meat. You brown your meat, then do whatever the box says.)

Here in Australia, this doesn't exist - hence the previous explanation. For a long time, nothing similar appeared in our diets. Until hubby had a taco craving. He comes from California. It was bound to happen eventually. So we bought a taco kit, made our tacos, and had a thoroughly enjoyable dinner. We also had so much leftover meat we didn't know what to do with it all. Remembering our prior love of Hamburger Helper, hubby came up with a great idea. Taco Mac. It won't be to everyone's taste, but we love it here, and it's a cheap, easy way to use up leftover taco meat.

We've come a long way since the days of taco-kits and Kraft mac&cheese, however. We now usually buy tortillas instead of using hard taco shells, I make our taco seasoning, and my husband has recently come to appreciate home-made macaroni and cheese - since I discovered how to make it with MILK instead of water, cutting down on 'the grainy factor' that he disliked so much.


TACOs*

In a large jar, combine:

• 10tsp paprika
• 9tsp cumin
• 5tsp onion flakes
• 5tsp garlic powder NOT GARLIC SALT FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE!!!!
• 4tsp coriander
• 4tsp salt
• 4tsp sugar

Mix well.

Brown your meat in a frypan.
Once browned, for every 500g (1 pound) meat, add about 1Tbsp taco seasoning, and 1/2 cup water, mix till well combined, and simmer to reduce. TASTE IT. You may need to add more, you may decide to use less next time.
Make your tacos, using whatever you like. We use soft tortillas, cheese, salsa and lettuce. My mum adds avocado, hubby adds chili sauce.



MACARONI & CHEESE

milk
butter
macaroni
salt
pepper
cheese

In an appropriately sized saucepan, mix your macaroni, milk, butter, salt & pepper.
How much, you ask? Thats tricky. This is the recipe I found: 2 1/2 cups pasta, 3 cups milk, pinch salt, med-high heat, stir continuously, add cheese when cooked.
DIDN'T WORK. Others have had brilliant results, my milk evaporated away and my pasta was still hard.
So heres what I did:

• 2 cups pasta, 2 1/2 cups milk, knob of butter - about 1tbsp - and a little salt&pepper in a 3L pot.
• LOW-MED heat.
• STIR CONTINUOUSLY.
• Add more milk when it's evaporated down quite a bit and your pasta is still hard as a rock.
• Keep stirring.
• Add MORE milk.
• KEEP STIRRING!!!!!!!!!!!
• Finally, CHEESE!!

What I recommend (serves 2 adults, 5yr old boy and 1yr old girl, with plenty left over. I need to work out better proportions for the 4 of us):

2 cups pasta, 3 cups milk, Tbsp butter, salt & pepper in a pot.
Med-low heat .
STIR CONTINUOUSLY for 10-15 minutes, adding more milk if needed.
When the pasta is cooked and the milk is thickened, add 1cup shredded cheese, stirring til combined and melted.
Taste, add more salt/pepper/cheese as needed.



TACO MAC

Make your mac&cheese.
Once the cheese is melted, add 1-2cups taco meat (depending on what you have available and how meaty you prefer it), stirring over low heat til well combined and heated through.




*We don't like spicy. This recipe is an absolute spicy FAIL, if you like spicy, add chili by all means!

Steak Marinade

• Measurements are mostly guesses
• Adjust to taste
• Good for steaks to eat as steak, and also for meat to go into a stir-fry or fried rice

For 4 steaks:

200ml soy sauce
50-100ml HP sauce
a good slosh of sesame oil
1 clove garlic, minced (1tsp minced-garlic-in-a-jar if you're lazy like me)
1 Tbsp brown sugar

Mix well, pour over raw steaks in a container/sealed bag, and refigerate at least 30min. Cook steaks as desired, basting with leftover liquid if you want (works well for BBQing, not so easy in a pan).

Shepherd's Pie

This is a family standard for cold whether, and is so enjoyed that we brave the oven-heat and eat it in summer too.

In reality, I suppose this version is "Cottage Pie" since we use beef mince instead of lamb, but whatever. IS TASTY.

YOU NEED:

• mince meat
• herbs
  
• vegies
• onion
• stock cubes
• water
• mashed potato
• cheese
• flour
• oil
• large, greased, ovendish
  

START:

The best place to start is with your mashed potatoes. They'll boil while you're cooking everything else, so get chopping. MAKE MORE THAN YOU THINK YOU WILL NEED. I'm serious. For Shepherd's Pie I usually use 7-8 good sized potatoes (quite a bit more than I use as a side dish), and theres barely enough. MAKE LOTS.

You could also turn your oven on to about 230 celcius, and grease your oven dish - it makes cleaning at the end a little easier.

Chop your onion as small as you want. I don't like onion so I cut it as small as I can be bothered. Brown it in some oil, then add your mince - we use about 1kg (2lb), and it makes 2 meals for our family of 3 (bub desnt count yet). If you want, you can add a sprinkle of mixed herbs as well. Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't.

While your meat is browning, start making your stock. You want it double strength, which is why we're using stock cubes instead of ready-made. Take 2 cubes of OXO (or wahtever you use) and crumble them into ONE portion of boiling water - usually about 1cup. MIX WELL.

Once your meat is browned, add your stock, and about 1 tablespoon of flour, sprinkled over. Mix it up. If its too liquidy, add a little more flour. Too dry, add more water. Once its as you like it, dump it into your dish, and spread it out evenly.

Add some vegies. We use a frozen bag of peas corn and carrots - about 1cup, mixed through the meat.why yes, that is a patch over on one side with no vegies. I can't stand cooked carrot, and peas make me want to be sick. Want to make something of it?

Now, time to add your mash. Start at the edges. Mush the mash up against the walls of the pan, making a sort of seal. Spread it thickly, and gently, or you'll just end up pushing at around and bringing the meat with it. If it starts to come up, add more. Once you've done the outside, work inwards. You'll be surprised at how much it takes. This is why I said to MAKE LOTS.

Sprinkle some cheese on top, using whatever you have handy - I usually use a combination of mozarella, tasty, and parmesan, but like I said, use whatever. Then whack it in your oven for about 20-25 minutes, or until the cheese has browned.

SERVE!!! We eat it as is, but you could add naything you wanted I suppose.

Go! EAT!!

You, Too, Can Make Your Own Everlasting Know-It-All

I discovered recently that Gosling quite likes yoghurt. Critter and hubby both like flavoured yoghurt, but since Gosling is only 9 months old, I decided that plaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaain was probably the way to go with her. So I bought a tub of Greek yoghurt, and fed it to her. Success. She preferred it with a little sugar, but would eat it without - with the addition of a startled "THATS SOUR!" face.

I remembered that my mother used to make yoghurt when I was growing up, in fact I'm not sure I remember her ever buying the stuff - she always just used milk to make some - so I asked her about it, and she told me that the yoghurt maker was actually still in the cupboards, and I should have a go. So I did.

Its surprisingly easy. Heat milk, cool it down, plop in some yoghurt to start it off, keep warm for 4 hours, whack it in the fridge. Really, the 'keep warm' part is the most difficult, which is where the yoghurt maker comes in handy. It also has a thermometer, making it easy to tell when to stop heating/cooling the milk.



MAKE SOME YOGHURT!!!

You need:

• a saucepan, big enough to hold all your milk, with a reasonable amount of space at the top - ie don't fill it too full.
• a stovetop
• preferably a thermometer - probably a candy thermometer
  
• 1L milk (or however much you want to make) - fullcream please. I dont know if light will work, use at your own risk.
• 1Tbsp natural yoghurt (aussie Tbsp - thats 4tsp. If you are making a different quantity, use 1tsp per cup of milk.)
• a jar - big enough to fit 1L milk - with a lid (or several smaller ones, or one smaller one, depending on how much you've made, but you need lids.)
• probably a funnel
• somewhere to keep your milk warm
• a fridge

Stick your saucepan on your stove, med-medhigh heat, and pour in a litre of milk (thats about 4 cups, or 2 pints for those not familiar with litres).

Milk on the stove

Heat your milk - 85-90 celcius (185-195 farenheit). If you have a thermometer handy, that will make things a lot easier. If you don't, DO NOT LET THE MILK BOIL. It should take about 20-30 minutes, or more, to heat up, depending on how hot your stove is. A skin will form on the top of the milk. There will be bubbles - on the top of the milk, a bit like froth. Not rolling bubbles like boiling. I REPEAT, DO NOT LET IT BOIL.

Once your milk is well heated, take it off the stove, and turn your stove off. I always forget that part. Let the milk cool down, to about 40ish celcius (105 farenheit). Again, easier if you have a thermometer. If you don't, it took my milk about 30 minutes to cool down. 40 is a little higher than bodyheat, so it will feel warm, but it shouldn't be HOT. DO NOT LET IT GET COLD. You need some heat for the yoghurt to work.

Now comes the yoghurt bit. Add about 1Tbsp NATURAL yoghurt (no flavours, colours, gelatin, fruit, sugar, what-have-you) to your milk, and give it a good stir. It might not dissolve completely, thats ok. As long as its not just sitting there in one big blob.

NATURAL yoghurt. No other stuff!

Dont worry too much about the Tbsp being level, or a measuring spoon. Or you can, if you want.

Pour your yoghurted milk into your jar(s). This is easier with a funnel (unless your saucepan has a pouring point, in which case you should send it to me for examination, but don't expect to get it back, because, uh, things get lost in the post. Yes.. thats it... lost in the post). Then put the lid on the jar(s) LOOSELY. What exactly does loosely mean? I'm not sure. There wasn't a definition. What's worked for me is to have it tight enough that the jar doesnt fall off if I pick it up by the lid, but loose enough that it still rattles around if I jiggle it up and down, and it still turns easily.

Now you have to keep your soon-to-be-yoghurt warm for quite a while. I have a flask made exactly the right size to fit the jar, so thats easy. You probably don't, or you wouldn't need these instructions. Things you can try:

• Maybe you have an eski (insulated box, generally used for keeping food/drinks cold), or styrofoam box (with a lid). Put your soon-to-be-yoghurt in the middle of the box, fill some more jars/bottles/whatever with hot water, and place them around the s-t-b-y, near but not touching. You could even wrap a teatowl around the s-t-b-y to make sure it doesn't come in contact. Lid the box. Put it somewhere it won't be disturbed. Check it every now and then to make sure everything is still warm, and refill the hot water jars as they cool
  
• Some poeple have had success with a VERY LOW HEAT oven. You want to keep it warm, not cook it
  
• You could try making your own insulation with batting and.. I don't know.
• Search Google to see what's worked for other people.

Insulating flask! Yay!

Leave the s-t-b-y alone for at least 4 hours (unless you have to refill hot jars to keep it warm, of course) and then check it, to see if it's yoghurt yet. If it isn't, put it back how it was and leave it alone for a bit longer. (My first batch took a good 5 hours, and was still very runny - apparently the first batch, started with BOUGHT yoghurt, usually takes longer to work. I believe it, my second batch - started from MADE yoghurt - was almost as thick as bought stuff in 4 hours.)

Looks set...

..but its a bit runny still.

Once it is set you can put it in the fridge, but remember: the longer you leave it, the tarter/sourer it will get. If you like it mild, fridge it as soon as it's set. If you like it tart, leave it in the heat for longer.

Your yoghurt can be easily modified with flavours (my son likes it with strawberry milk powder stirred through, or a little bit of sugar. Mum uses honey), and will be good for about a week. Just make sure you keep some to start the next batch.

Easy Chicken Parmigiana

We don't eat much fancy stuff here. We have a few dishes that we like, and we just have them all the time. But the other day I felt like something different, and since we had chicken out, we had a look for chicken recipes.

Hubby got Jamie Oliver's Ministry of Food cookbook for Christmas, and theres a recipe in there for "Crispy Chicken" that hubby decided looked good, so we settled on that. Then I had a hankering for cheese, so we decided to modify it a little to get Chicken Parmigiana.

It was delicious. It will now be one of our semi-regular dishes. (Only semi, because Critter is allergic to chicken and eggs, so we tend to have chicken only when we have leftovers that he really loves, like Shepherd's Pie, or sausages.)


Chicken Parmigiana

• boneless skinless chicken breast
• bread
• lemon
• butter
• salt & pepper
• parsley
• egg
  
• flour
• pizza sauce
• cheese
  

Turn your oven on as high as it will go. Grease a baking tray. Set aside.

Sprinkle 2tablespoons of flour on a plate. Beat an egg in a large bowl. Set aside.

Chicken breast - however many your family will eat. We tend to cook one breast each, but will leave some for lunch the next day if they're massive. Place in a bag/between cling film, and pound flattish with a frypan. A mallet would probably work too, but the frypan is more satisfying.

Breadcrumbs - per breast: 2 slices of bread, slightly toasted; 1/2 tablespoon butter; zest 1/4 lemon; salt, pepper, dried parsley to taste. Stick it in a food processor until the crumbs are nice and small. Taste. Adjust as needed. Tip onto a plate and spread out evenly-ish.

Crumbing the chicken - coat the chicken in the flour, then the egg, then the breadcrumbs. Make sure it is well coated. Any excess will just fall off back onto the plate when you lift it, so don't be afraid to be generous.

Put the chicken on the baking tray and whack it in the oven for about 10-15 minutes, depending on how flat you pounded it. Once the time is up, pour some pizza sauce on the chicken. (We used a thick pizza sauce, but if yours is thin, add some tomato paste and extra herbs and mix it up - this is what we do with pizza and it works very well.) Top with cheese - mozzarella preferably, but if you hate it, use something else. We also added parmesan because we loooooooooooove parmesan.

Stick it back in the oven for a minute or two, until the cheese is melty and/or browned slightly, depending on the cheese you used and how you like it. Basically, you just don't want the sauce or cheese to still be cold.

Serve with side of your choice. In this case, raw carrots and Greek Potatoes.

Greek Potatoes

Recipe from a cypriot friend. Possibly the easiest recipe I know.

No picture because they just look like boiled potatoes.


WARNING: VERY TASTY. Do not be tempted to make extra to keep for later, because you'll just eat it all.


Greek Potatoes

• potatoes (small works best)
• olive oil
• salt
• lemon

Cut your potatoes into bite sized chunks. This is, for me, about 1/4 for smallish potatoes. Your mileage may vary. Place in a pot with some salt, and cover with water. Turn on your hot plate to high, and set your timer for 15 minutes. When it goes off, check your potatoes - poke them with a sharp knife. You want them cooked, but not soft enough for mash. You probably need to cook them for at least 5 more minutes, depending on how big you cut them.

Once they're cooked, drain them and then put them back in the pot, but NOT ON THE HOT PLATE. Turn it off. You're done with that.

Add enough olive oil to coat the potatoes, add salt and lemon to taste (you could also add some finely chopped herbs here for taste or looks value, but I dont bother), shake the pot a little till all the potatoes are well coated (which is why you don't want them mash worthy), and thats it. They're ready to serve.

nesting kicks in

hubby cutting home-made pizza, with the kidlet looking on in the background

baby-time is getting closer and closer. 2-6 weeks till i get to meet the sprog. and im nesting.

its kicking in in interesting ways. cleaning mostly, and the urge to paint... (which im not going to do because paint fumes make me feel ill even when im not pregnant.) but also the cooking. we had pizza for dinner tonight. i use a recipe found here, modified a little. (i love this recipe. its quick, its tasty, and it doesnt involve hours of rising time. mix and go!) i like my pizza thin, hubby likes his thick, but not as thick as one recipe of this, so i make one and a bit recipes and split it off-centre. also take a little bit off to make a mini-pizza for the kid, since he likes to have his own.

actually, critterbug is very helpful. he enjoys kneading dough, so i let him knead his own pizza, and he helps me roll them out. sometimes he even puts his own toppings on.

the nesting instinct kicked in while i was preparing the dough. once the dough is made, the pizza really doesnt take that long to make. chuck stuff on top, bake for 16 minutes. but MAKING the dough can take a while.

so i made extra. i baked it for about 7 minutes, till it juuuuuuuuuuust started to look cooked-ish, and when it had cooled down, i wrapped it in cling-film and stuck it in the freezer. next time we want pizza, all we have to do is take it out, add toppings, and bake. start with a cold oven so it thaws as it goes.

what im figuring however is NOT to use this next time. next time we have pizza ill make a double batch again, and freeze the extra again. it really doesnt take much extra time, and when we need something quick after the baby's born, tada!!

nesting instincts for the win.

cheeeeeeeeeeesecake

my husband brags about my cooking at work. he enjoys making the other men drool, i think*. it sounds like their wives either: arent good cooks; have no time to cook; hate cooking, because they all started salivating at the idea of home-baked bread, or a roast in the middle of the week for no reason other that 'i felt like cooking a roast', rather than on the weekend, because roasts happen on weekends. or coming home to the smell of cookies just finishing in the oven.

anyway, he's told them about the cheesecake i make, and they all said how good it sounded, so i made one last night for him to take in today. apparently everyone loved it. theres none left, at least. he even gave a piece to a customer who was there when they cut it, and he wolfed it down.

yay.

thing about the cheesecake is, im a bit curious about the recipe.

my mum got me a 3 year subscription to better homes and gardens magazine a couple christmases ago, and i watch it nearly every week, and thats where i got the recipe from. but they keep changing it. the recipe i use, which i either got from the magazine, or wrote down from the tv show - cant remember now - has 3 tubs of cream cheese and 8 eggs (there is nooooooooo way my kid is going near this cake. not until someone proves hes not allergic to eggs anymore), but the recipe on the website has 14 eggs. and i saw it somewhere else BHG related, with 4 tubs of cream cheese, and 8 eggs. i dont understand why though. all the other ingredients are exactly the same.

i always make it with 3 tubs, and 8 eggs. it comes out great, although i have to turn up the heat in the oven and cook it for longer than it says. so i dont understand the recipe change. why sometimes an extra 6 eggs? why sometimes a third more cheese?

maybe one day i'll understand... or maybe i'll just keep making it my way and putting a grin on my husband's face.






*there is also a girl in her early 20s who works there and called me a slave when hubby mentioned me making bread. i dont like her much. i ENJOY cooking, i ENJOY making my husband happy, and i prefer the taste of my bread to storebought. what about that makes me a slave?

i dont get it

my mother makes the most delicious brownies. the recipe is from supercook (which i cant find decent links to online, but as far as i can tell, it was put out as magazines, wth binders to hold it all. 8 volumes, each about 300pages. this is HUGE people) and my mother is the only person i know who can make them.

you think im joking.

mum's best friend has the recipe. she doesnt make them, because she can't. they fail. mum makes a batch every time we go over to their house and we leave most of them, because otherwise they never get to eat brownies.

my sister occasionally makes them. they dont taste anywhere near the same.

ive made them twice. yesterday, they failed. they taste great, but really, you should not have to scoop them out of the pan with a spoon, and still eat them one crumb at a time. i think they might have been overcookes... im not sure. the other time, i dont even remember what happened, but they didnt work.

various other people ahve tried and failed.

my mother is the only person i know who can make them. its ridiculous.

I WANT TO MAKE DECENT BROWNIES!!!!!!!!!

stir fry

i made stir fry for dinner tonight, because its easy.

but as i was making it, i started wondering how easy it REALLY is.

• defrost the meat, get hubby to cut it up (i CANNOT handle raw meat/chicken unless its through a bag, and even then i get queasy. this is not a pregnancy thing, this is just me).
• cut up the veg
• add sauces and spices to the electric fry pan until it smells right, add some of the veg.
• add the same stuff to the normal fry pan, and cook the meat.
• add the rest of the veg to the electric.
• add the meat to the electric.
• add a bag of hokkien noodles to the electric.
• hope nothing burns.

granted, its not as involved as, for example, red meat (where you need a million ingredients to make the sauce, and let it cook for 20 minutes before adding it to the cooked meat, and adding partially cooked green beans), but its not as easy as lamb chops on a lazy day - stick the chops in the grill, put the rice on, cook a veg.

but in my head its still easy. and theres not much washing up, which is good. 2 pans, 2 chopping boards, 2 knives, spatula.

i wonder what else is embedded in our heads as 'easy', even when it really isnt so much?



tereyaki stir fry (which really isnt, i guess, because i add so much water)
feeds my family of 3 with a serve or two left over. can easily feed more with the adition of more veg/more noodles. meat is really an accent in this dish, and has on occasion been left out. any veg is doable, and the noodles can easily be left out to serve with rice.

in an electric fry pan:
a good drizzle of olive oil
as much again of each: red wine; tereyaki sauce
teaspoon or so of cinnamon powder
teaspoon or so of ginger (fresh, powdered, or can of minced, any is fine)
turn heat to about half way, add about a cup of water

chop a head of broccoli and add to the fry pan
also 2 cans of baby corn
(keep adding water whenever it starts looking dry, and tereyaki if it starts looking pale)

in a separate fry pan on the stove, add same amounts of oil, wine, tereyaki, ginger, and cinnamon. NO WATER.
turn heat to half, and add meat (3 cheap boneless steaks from the butcher, cut up small).

when the corn and broccoli are starting to colour, and the meat needs to be turned, add one large carrot, and about as much mushroom to the electric fry pan, with more cinnamon, and more water/tereyaki if needed. and obviously, turn the meat over.

stir the veg every now and then to make sure all sides cook.

when the meat is well browned, add to electric fry pan, along will all juices. doesnt matter if its cooked through yet.

cook everything in the electric until there is minimal liquid left, then add hokkien noodles, stir until all mixed and all liquid is gone.

tada.

bread addendum

so bread.. i lost my recipe card and jumped on here to get the recipe (KNEW there was a reaon for posting everything!) and realsie i messed up. i put the water on twice. fixed now.

before i forget

lizzie gave me cravings for silverside, so i made mum show me how she does it when we were down there (no crockpot for us. giant pot on the stove it is), and now i can inflict the delicious-rainbow-sheen-pink-salty on my husband whenever i want to. but im writing the 'recipe' here as well as in my recipe box, because i will lose paper, and this is forever.

hunk of silverside in a large pot.
2 carrots cut into chunks, about 1 inch
2 celery 1 inch
1 onion in quarters
2-3 bayleaves
small handful of peppercorns - about 1 inch.
enough water to cover.
bring to boil, reduce to simmer for 2 hours, discard water and disintegrated vegies. (or you could eat them i guess... except YUCK.)
try not to eat the entire hunk of meat. your family will look at you as if you are insane.

homemade musli bars

my wrists have been playing havoc today, probably because i slept in a truly odd position last night, and as a result, i havent got the courage to brave breadmaking. i am however in a very cooking mood, so i made musli bars.

and i even took pictures. well.. the kid took most of them. which is why there are so many.

also, please ignore the belly. its getting in the way of everything.


the measurements listed are what i use. the only really important ones are 4cups oats, and 1tin sweetened condensed milk. everything else is up to your own personal tastes. dont like apricots? leave them out. or use something else instead. want to go healthier? use more fruit instead of choc chips. want real indulgence? buy different types of choc chips and leave out the fruit. and of course you can add more or less as you want. sometimes i use more sunflower seeds, sometimes i use more sesame seeds. it all comes out just as well.

i have no idea how much these cost to make. not much. the choc chips are probably the main cost involved. ETA: ok so i was curious, and whipped out my handy spreadsheet.. this tray cost me $8.26 to make, but if i'd used coles choc-chips it would have been about $6.43 and the way i cut them, theres about 14-20 in the tray, making each musli bar 41-59c this time, or 32-46c if i use coles choc chips. not bad at all. and if i can get sweetened condensed milk on special, theyd be even a little bit cheaper.



so here we go. home-made musli-bars. YUM YUM YUM!!

oh look.. almost everything is actually in a packet for once!

put in a VERY LARGE BOWL:

4 cups quick oats - no-name brand are fine, just make sure theyre QUICK oats. (instant oats? the instructions should only list about a minute of cooking time.)


1 packet choc chips - about 250g (ish) or if you keep them in a canister or something, a little over a cup

i usually dont use brand name. i like the taste of coles-brand, and i prefer the size.. cadburry's are too large. but we went to woolworths, not coles, and woolies choc-chips leave a horrid aftertaste. so cadbury's it was. and oh look! you can see my living room.

1 cup sultanas (raisins)


1/4 cup sesame seeds


1/4 cup sunflower seeds


1/2 cup finely chopped dried apricots

i like to chop mine up about the same size as the sultanas, and i usually make sure the 1/2 cup is over-full, instead of flat. i like apricots.

1 tin sweetened condensed milk

this has got to be the only thing he DIDNT take a picture of. i have pictures of the clock, his sandal, the floor, the counter, the cat, my belly, but no tin of milk.

mix everything except the sweetened condensed milk together. you may find you need to stop occasionaly to break up clumps of apricot.. they tend to stick together until coated in oat powder.


add enough s.c.m for everything to stick together - probaly the whole tin, might be a little less. mix well.


it might look like there isnt enough s.c.m for a while, there will be a lot of dry oats in the bottom of the bowl. just keep mixing. it will all come together. sometimes helps if you turn the bowl around a bit as you go.


line a.. um.. large tin with a lid? with baking paper (the cheap stuff that doesnt work for baking is fine for this).

dont you just love my terribly attractive kitchen floor? 70s lino baby, oh yeah.

pour/scrape everything into the tin, trying not to break your wrist, or drop the 30yr old+ bowl you're currently holding, which isnt actually yours.


press down and smooth out. you may have to use your hands here.

yay. my belly.

cover with clingfilm, and put the lid on. (if your tray doesnt have a lid, the film WILL NOT STICK to the tray, so you'll have to wrap it ALL around, instead of just over the top.


stick it in the fridge to set. it doesnt matter where, just wherever theres room. which for us is usually the bottom shelf.

oh look.. my fridge is FULL!! YAY!!

when the musli bars have set, which will take a couple hours at least, you can cut them up, and theyre ready to eat. i usually cut the whole thing lengthways down the middle, and then across to make the individual bars, as i want them.

bread stuffs, raisin and otherwise

NORMAL

2 Tbsp (40ml) oil
2 1/2 cups hot water
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
10g dry yeast (3tsp)
2 tsp salt
3 cups plain flour
3 cups wholemeal flour


disolve brown sugar in water, add oil, salt, and yeast, leave to froth.
add plain flour, mix well. add enough wholemeal to turn into dough, knead on floured surface until smooth, cover in oiled bowl and rise to double.
punch down, knead again, divide in 2 and shape into loaves - either freeform or in loaf pans, rise to double again.
bake at 175C for 35min



WITH RAISINS

almost exactly the same:
add 2tsp cinnamon to yeast/sugar mix, add 1 cup sultanas (raisins) with flour. if they fall out while kneading, poke them back in.



in theory, you could add anything. havent tried it with other fruit yet. considering trying it with cheese and herbs.. but no fruit, of course.

chocolate pudding

so a couple of my lurkers, who refuse to comment, but send me emails instead (seriously guys, comment already), asked how we make chocolate pudding.

unfortunately i didnt get the emails till after i made it, so no pictures for you today, but ill take pictures next time i do it, 'k?

its not very hard to make, either. other than the bit involving bubbling lava, critter helped me all the way through. and hes only 4.


this is my mums recipe - exactly as she emailed it to me - and it only loosely corresponds to instructions on the custard powder packet (ingredients are the same other than the cocoa, but her method is rather different). i dont know where she got it from. i modify it a little.

2 well rounded tablespoons (those big silver serving spoons) of custard powder
2 slightly rounded tablespoons (serving spoons again) of sugar
1 heaped tablespoon (once again the serving spoons) of cocoa
1 pint (about 600 ml I think) milk. The Pyrex jug has a pint measure on it, I think

Put custard powder and cocoa in a pudding basin. Mix to a paste with a little of the milk - about 1/2 a cup or so. It feels really strange at this stage. Looks liquid but feels rather stiff.

Put the rest of the milk and the sugar in a saucepan and heat slightly (to about blood temperature) until the sugar is melted. Stir to make sure the sugar is disolved

Pour a bit of the warm milk into the custard powder and stir so that it is well mixed.

Pour the mixture back into the milk in the saucepan and heat gradually until it boils (it will look like lava bubbling up). Make sure to do this gently so that it doesn't burn on the bottom and stir continually so that it doesn't go lumpy. It needs to bubble so that it is thoroughly cooked as this is what thickens it.

then I pour it into individual dishes (or on top of the trifle!!) to cool.

the serving spoons she's talking about.. i really have no idea what they correspond to. possibly about a tablespoon?

ok i just went and measured it.. theyre 20ml. so thats 1tablespoon if you use australian measures, or 4teaspoons (1Tbsp, + 1tsp) if you use US measures. (why are they different? messes up my recipes something awful why is an american Tbsp=3tsp but australian Tbsp=4tsp.. grrrrrrrrr.)

ok.. so thats my mums recipe. i made it like that ast week, and while it was nice, it wasnt quite what i wanted. so today i made it just a teensy bit differently, and it was exactly right. very slightly sweeter, and a little less dense.

here we go!


INGREDIENTS

2 Tbsp (VERY heaped) custard powder
1 Tbsp (heaped) cocoa powder
2 Tbsp (slightly heaped) + 1tsp sugar
1 pint + 1/2 cup milk

METHOD

mix custard powder and cocoa together in a large bowl, and add the 1/2 cup milk. stir until well combined - try for no lumps. it might still feel stiff, this is fine, as long as it looks like a liquid.

put the sugar and 1pint milk in a saucepan, and heat till warm, NOT HOT, and the sugar is disolved.

add about 1/4 - 1/3 cup milk/sugar mixture to the custard mixture, and stir until well mixed and smooth.

poor contents of bowl back into saucepan, and bring to boil, slowly, stirring continually, all the way to the bottom of the pan.

once mix is thick and smooth, pour into individual dishes.


NOTE:

1. warm milk - blood temperature. got kids? drop some on your wrist the same way you would with a bath or a bottle. thats about right. you dont want it hot yet, but the warm helps it mix with the custard mixture.
   
2. my mum mentioned about it getting lumpy. no matter how much i stir, IT GOES LUMPY. this is fine. it smooths out if you keep mixing. i near panicked the first time, trying to figure out what id done wrong. then it stopped being lumpy, very suddenly.
3. it really does look like lava when it boils. it doesnt boil rapidly the way milk or water does, it swells slowly then bursts, and only 3-4 at a time.
4. pouring it out of the saucepan can be tricky. i find it much easier to use some sort of scoop. ive been separating my pudding into 6 slightly-larger-than-a-ramikin sized dishes, which is about 2-3 scoops in each one, using my trusty silver serving spoon. a ladle or measuring cup would probably work just as well.. just be careful not to urn your fingers if you use a measuring cup.
5. the extra teaspoon of sugar makes a WORLD of difference, as does the extra little bit of milk. maybe you like it less sweet, dont add the extra sugar. mum thinks its too sweet with more sugar, but maybe she heaps her spoons to a different degree than i do.
6. there will probably be a very dark bubbly-looking layer on the bottom of the pan once youve got all the pudding out. this is what teaspoons are for. probably youve shared the dregs with the chiildren, but now, tell the kids its no good because its burnt, make them play in another room and SCRAPE OFF AND EAT AS MUCH AS YOU CAN BEFORE THEY REALISE YOU'RE LYING. it looks burnt, but tastes like heaven.
   

hmm. should i eat one hot, or wait till they cool down and have it after dinner?

kids in bed.. im going for hot.


you cant have any. go make your own.

the difference between cooking and baking

because one of my mates who REFUSES TO COMMENT HERE and emails me instead, asked.

for me, baking involves precise measurements. you MUST use 2 cups of flour, or it wont work. you MUST use no more than 1/2 cup milk or it will glug. you MUST use lukewarm water, or the yeast will do nothing.

cooking is more of a make-it-up-as-you-go-along thing. having stir-fry? throw in whatever you feel like. roast dinner? check it every now and then until its cooked.

everytime i COOK, i do something a little different. and sometimes, this means the exact same dish turns out differently than it did last time. when i BAKE i follow the recipe precisely, because im just not that good yet.

also, i cook by instinct.. i guess. i really couldnt tell you why some days i use more ginger in my stirfry and some days i use more cinnamon. or why sometimes the roast has more oil than others. or why sometimes i use twice as much butter in my mashed potatoes, and sometimes i use a lot more milk. i just throw stuff at my food until it feels right.

and thats the difference between cooking and baking.

delicious roast dinner

tonight, we had a roast dinner for the first time in ages. like, really. ages. 2+ months. so i decided to go all out and make yorkshire pudding as well. and then hubby said what a pity you dont know how to make gravy, so i decided to give gravy a try too. REAL gravy. as in add flour to the meat-cooking-fat and heat it on the stove kind of gravy. none of this JUST ADD WATER! powdered nonsense in MY house thankyou. (no offense to anyone who DOES use that stuff. im sure its a whole lot easier than making gravy from scratch. but i'm a little obsessive about making things from scratch, and try not to use pre-made ingredients whenever i can - unless theyre TRULY BREATHTAKINGLY DELICIOUS, like the tomato-rosemary roasts from coles - which is why we have tins and tins of tomatoes in the cupboard, and go through mixed herbs like anything, instead of just buying pasta sauce. anyway, back to cooking.)

if anything sounds good, theres instructions at the very end.


we only had a plain roast, since the pre-flavoured ones in woolies taste like... not nice, and we havent been to coles for months, so i sliced up 2 cloves of garlic and shoved the pieces into slits in the roast, then covered it in mixed herbs (usually i use rosemary, but no-one told me we were out of rosemary.. just shows how long its been since weve had a roast), doused it in a little olive oil and popped it in the oven, at about 4pm. then quartered (aprox. some were 6thed, some where 3rded, depending on the size and shape of the potato) 5 large potatoes, boiled them for 7 min, and tossed them in the pan with the meat.

i dug out fanny farmer, looked up yorkshire pudding, and gravy, decided i could probably do that. hopefully. if the no-egg actually works this time. last time my mum made yorkshire, we used the no-egg, and the silly things wouldnt cook. just wouldnt do it. so hubby suggested i make some with no-egg, and some WITH egg, just in case. good idea that man! so i will make 2 half-batches. the eggless will go in a square pan, the egged in the muffin tray, so i can easily differentiate. dont want kidlet eating the egg ones. he wont explode, thankfully, but the rashes are still not nice.

so about 5:30, i pulled the roast out, spooned some of the now-meat-flavoured-oil from the pan into the dish i was going to use for the pudding, and put them both back in the oven. the oil has to stay nice and hot for the pudding to go in. mix the no-egg (one tsp no-egg, 2 tbsp water), 1/2 cup milk, 1/2 cup flour, pinch salt, and beat with a fork till smooth. add a little more milk cause its CHUNKY and GLUGGY. and then take the square pan out of the oven, burning my wrist in the process, and pour in the yorkshire glug. for some reason, the oil decided to.... roll up over the batter. interesting. back in the oven for 25 minutes!

string the beans! fun job. it was far too quiet in the kitchen, since one boy was asleep, and the other was de-nailing the freshly de-carpeted floor, so i put on my princess bride soundtrack. it is so strange to think that the same guy who composed that - mark knopfler - is also behind dire straits. so very very different. anyway, time to get the pudding out, and silly me forgot that the oven has to be at 230 for the pudding, and only 180 for the roast (both celsius), so it stayed in there for a while longer. but i did take out the roast, and transferred the meat and the potatoes onto a plate, which i then covered in foil and set aside. spooned more of the oil into the muffin tray, made up another batch of pudding batter with 1 egg instead of the no-egg, and popped that into the oven, which i turned up. it was about 6pm by now.

put the beans on the boil, put the roasting pan on a hot plate, and added 2 tbsp of flour, and a little more oil. boy does that flour SIZZLE in the hot oil! i probably should have waited a while before making the gravy, cause that flour was sizzling away, and i still had 5 minutes to wait before the beans were done and i could put the water in the pan for the gravy! so i quickly found a ladle and stole a little bean water for the gravy, and also turned down the heat. that helped. a bit. take the eggless pudding out of the oven, and although it hasnt risen up all bubbly like it should, its cooked, and good. YAY!

i ended up turning the beans off after 3.5min instead of 5 (good move - they were perfect) and strained them, catching the water in the small mixing bowl. i added it, slowly, to the gravy pan, continuing to stir it, trying to break up the large chunks of flour that had congealed in the hot oil. add a little salt, four twists of pepper, and a dash of red wine. and keep stirring. at some point it turned into a nice liquid, instead of water with chunks of oiled flour in it. but quite thin. so i gave it a good stirring to make sure it was all mixed together and then ignored it in the hopes some water would evaporate and it would thicken up.

i checked on my egged puddings. rising nicely. much better than the no-egg one. maybe i should try no-egg puddings with self raising flour instead of plain? it still tastes good, but it definitely doesnt have the same effect when its all flat. the gravy was starting to bubble a bit, so went to check on hubby's progress in the room, and asked him to come taste the gravy (i dont eat gravy, so i dont know what it should taste like). which he did. and said it was very yummy. yay! at this point my wrist started really hurting so i went and got some aloe vera gel for it.

when i got back, the gravy appeared to be done, and the puddings were quite browned, so i turned everything off, poured the gravy into a jug (with hubby's help. i have bad wrists), and took the yorkshire out of the oven. hubby carved the meat, the kidlet started begging, and then we all sat down and ate. the kid ate nearly everything he was given (which is good since hes been a bit off his food the past couple days), nad actually seemed to enjoy the yorkshire. hubby used 2/3 of the gravy BY HIMSELF, so i guess it was a success. he also went back for 2nds of the potatoes and seemed to enjoy the yorkshires. YAY. i myself ate too much.. particularly the yorkshire. it doesnt keep, so anything left just gets thrown away.. so i ate most of it. naughty. i'll have to make less next time. i tried the gravy too. the idea still makes me nauseous, but it really did taste good. ill have to try and get over the idea thing.





instructions if anyone is interested:


roast beef
cooking time: about 20-30min per 500g, at 180C, depending how well done you like it

beef
if you have a plain roast, cut numerous slits about 1inch deep, and put a slice of garlic in each slit. sprinkle generously with rosemary (other herbs will work nicely too).

pour on enough oil to coat the meat, and nearly cover the bottom of the pan. put it in the oven while you boil the potatoes. you want the oil to be hot so the potatoes dont soak too much of it up, but start cooking straight off.

when the roast is nearly done, remove it and the potatoes to a plate, and cover with foil. let rest at least 15min before carving. nearly done, because it will continue to cook for a little while under the foil

potatoes
about one med-large potato per person. more if the potatoes are smaller, or if you want leftovers.

bring to the boil enough water to just cover the potatoes.

peel the potatoes, and cut into aprox. 1.5 inch chunks. usually the potatoes can just be quartered.

boil about 7 mins. when done, use a strain-spoon to transfer the potatoes to the roasting pan. keep the water in the pot to boil vegetables later.

either turn the potatoes over once, or baste them, then put the pan back in the oven.

sweet potatoes
no boiling! just cut into chunks and put straight in the roasting pan with the meat. if there isnt enough room, spoon some of the meated-oil into a second pan so the sweet potatoes get some flavour, add some garlic if you wish, ad add enough fresh oil to just cover the bottom of the pan. make sure the sweet potatoes are coated in the oil or they will dry out.

if your oil isnt meated yet, dont worry, just use fresh oil, and add some of the meat juice later.


vegetables
cooking time: 3-10 minutes

really, whatever you want is good. i prefer green beans (the long one) or broccoli. if you are making gravy, strain into a bowl instead of straight down the sink. the water will be used in the gravy.

green beans
rinse. string (cut off the ends, cut lengthways discarding the outer edge. much much easier if you have a bean stringer), or chop into 2inch lengths. boil in the water you saved from your potatoes earlier, about 3.5 minutes. strain, serve. best with a very little salt.

broccoli
RINSE WELL. make sure any little bug are out. sometimes they hide. or maybe youre not that fussy. either way. cut into florets. should be fairly obvious where is good place to cut. when you get down to the middle, just cut it into chunks about the same size as the florets. if you like the stalk (my son will eat the stalk to the exclusion of anything else, including chocolate), cut off the very bottom - about 1/4 inch - and 'peel' it: cut off only the very outside, as little as you can manage. cut in half lengthways and crossways. boil in the water you saved from your potatoes earlier, about 3-6 minutes, depending on how well done you like it. 3 minutes is still quite crisp, 6 minutes it will fall apart a good bit when you strain it. strain, serve.


yorkshire pudding
cooking time: 25-30min at 230C

when your roast is out of the oven, take enough oil from the pan to just cover the bottom of a 9x9 or 7x11 pan, and put it in the oven - turned up to 230 - to keep hot.

beat together 2 eggs, 1cup flour, 1 cup milk, and 1/2 - 1 tsp salt (to taste) until smooth. you may find you need to add more milk. i seem to.

pour the batter into the pan and bake. when it is done it will be lightly browned, and should have large puffs. also, it will probably have separated from the edges of the pan.

DONT PANIC if the edges or bottom are quite dark. it is probably not burned, just very flavoured.

cut into equal portions per person. good alone, or covered in gravy.


gravy
cooking time: 20minutes?

put your roasting pan on the stove top, over a low-med heat, to heat up the oil from the roast, and with a metal spoon, try to scrape up anything stuck to the bottom of the pan.

add 2tbsp plain flour. IT WILL SIZZLE LIKE MAD. DO NOT PANIC. stir it up as best you can, spreading the flour through as much oil as possible. keep stirring and spreading. add a little more oil if theres not much there, or a little (1tbsp - 1/4cup) water if your just not sure. add seasonings to taste. salt, pepper, red wine, extra herbs, go wild with it.

after about 5-10 minutes, or you begin panicking, SLOWLY add your vegetable water, about a ladleful at a time, and KEEP MIXING. the flour will begin to dissolve, and everything will come together. add water to about 1/2 inch deep. KEEP MIXING. stir back and forth, slowly, spreading out the flour, and scraping up anything on the bottom of the pan. if its ever too thick, add a little more water. if it gets too thin, leave it to simmer for a minute or two - but only if it is well mixed together. DO NOT LEAVE IT if its still very separated.

when its done (subjective. you might like it runnier than my husband, or perhaps thicker), CAREFULLY pour into a gravy boat or pitcher of some sort, turn off the stove, and put the pan back on the hotplate with some water in it - this will make cleaning it later SO MUCH easier, but be careful carrying it. you dont want to clean up a roasting pan's worth of water from your floor.

blueberry muffins

when we went shopping yesterday, i noticed that there were punnets of blueberries in aldi. havent noticed them in there before.



"do you like blueberries love?"



"i like blueberry muffins, yes."



"well shall we get some blueberries and i can make you some muffins?"



i spent some time yesterday looking for recipes for lemonade, lemon sorbet, and blueberry muffins. fannie farmer has a recipe for lemon jelly, so that might come in handy.. found a lot of the same lemonade recipe online, and a lemon sorbet recipe thats basically frozen lemonade, so that should be good. blueberry muffins were a little harder. half the recipes looked odd, containing things like sour cream or unsweetened yoghurt, and the other half called for more blueberries than i had. i found a couple that looked ok, then i thought to look in fannie farmer. why didnt i look there to begin with? silly sarah.



the hardest thing to do was flouring the muffin tray. (i know from experience that greasing is not enough, and we dont have any patty-pans.) they cooked a little longer than the recipe suggested, because they just werent quite cooked. but they came out of the tray easily, and they smell fantastic. took one to hubby, who is painting the trim in the room now (hes so fantastic), and he said theyre delicious.



odd as it may sound, i have never eaten a blueberry before. im a very picky eater, and its not all to do with taste. some things i cant eat because of they way they feel. doesnt matter how good it tastes, if it feels weird in my mouth, i just cant eat it. (i love orange juice. cant eat oranges.) and blueberries look like they would feel very strange indeed. i was also suspicious of the taste. i cant stand strawberries, mangoes, raspberries, pears, pineapple, a lot of 'sweet' fruit actually. but hubby asked me to try it, so i cut a muffin in half, gave the remainder to the boy, and cautiously took a bite.



man, those things are JUICY! and not very evenly distributed in the batter. one half of the muffin was plain, the other half was 80%blueberry, with a little muffin around the edges. but they do in fact taste quite nice.



im slowly getting better about trying new foods. especially since i dont want my boy to be picky like me. he has enough trouble with things he CAN'T eat due to allergies, he doesnt need any more things he WON'T eat, just because. theres still a lot of stuff i wont eat, but im trying so hard to be good.