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.