Enjoying ... a quick to bake bicki, a nice cup of tea and a good book.

  

Oat Cookies

1  1/2 cup plain flour

1/2 teasp bicarb soda

1  1/2 cup rolled oats

1/2 cup sultanas

1/4 cup chopped dried apricots
a handful of chopped almonds 

1/2 cup sugar

125gm melted butter

2 tabs golden syrup

1 egg

Sift flour and bi carb soda together.

Stir in oats, sultanas, apricots, almonds and sugar

than add combined melted butter, golden syrup and egg

Mix well

Drop teaspoonfuls onto a greased baking tray

Bake in moderate oven for approx 10 mins or until golden brown

Cool and serve with a nice cup of tea . . . and a good book.

I had the pleasure of meeting with Rhonda last week and finally got  my hands on her Down to Earth book. I've just managed to make myself some time to sit and have a flick through it...It's interesting, it's pretty, and it's full of the most useful information, it's a real Homemakers Bible. 

I pickled the Cucs!

In my last post some of you suggested that I pickle my excess cucumbers, so that's just what I did, with a few other fresh ingredients from the garden.

Pickled Cucumbers

also known as Bread & Butter Cucumbers,  they are so delicious you'll want to have them on the table with every meal. 

I used 6 medium size cucumbers

2 onions

1/2 red capsicum

1/3 cup salt

4 cups cider vinegar

1 1/4 cup of sugar

1 teasp ground turmeric

2 teasp mustard seeds

2 teasp chopped dill

2 teasp celery seeds

Slice the cucumbers, onion and capsicum and mix together in a large bowl, sprinkle with salt.  Cover and let stand for about 4 hours.  

In a large saucepan combine the rest of the ingredients.

No celery seeds in my cupboard so I used the next best thing, the celery flowers straight from the veggie garden...(they would have been seeds one day had I had left them to mature!!)

Bring to the boil then add the well drained cucumber mixture. Bring back to the boil then remove from heat. With a slotted spoon ladle the pickles into wide mouthed sterilized jars.  Seal and water bath. 

Enjoy. . . or give to the neighbours for Christmas. . .

Devon Sandwiches

Did you ever get Devon Sandwiches in your lunchbox when you were growing up?
You may also know this meat product as Luncheon  or Veal German. 

It's a real family favourite around here, it's cheap, it's tasty and it lasts forever....God knows what it's made with though, you always hear all these awful stories about what goes in it, not to mention all the preservatives.

Here's a nice homemade version of Devon, it's a much healthier alternative, it's quite simple and it's fun to make.  

If your not a fan of the commercially made product then you must try this sometime, I'm sure you'll be impressed.  

Homemade Devon Sausage

1/2 cup chopped onion

 1 x tab chopped capsicum

2 x tab butter

2 x eggs, beaten

1/3 cup tomato juice 

1/2 cup rolled oats

1 teasp salt

1/4 teasp dry mustard

750gm minced beef

250gm minced pork

Cook the onion and capsicum in butter until soft but not brown.  Combine with all the other ingredients in a food processor until well mixed and mushy.

Set out a sheet of tin foil and roll the mixture into a sausage, secure the ends. 

Bake at 180 degrees for approx 1 1/2 hours.  Remove from the oven and set aside to cool.  

When cooled, store in the fridge, slice as needed.  Can be eaten like a meatloaf with a fresh crisp salad or steamed veggies or enjoyed at it's best on a freshly made sandwich.  Like any standard cooked meat, it will only keep in the fridge for a couple of days, but it does freeze well.  Sliced or left whole.
Also a handy little sausage to take all wrapped up to a picnic...

Devon Cheese & Tomato toasties...

My all time favourite, Devon and Tomato sauce.....

The Great Cabbage Harvest

I'm very proud of my little Cabbage Patch but I'm not a real lover of Cabbage,  I don't mind it boiled up occasionally with a little dob of butter and sprinkle of salt & pepper especially with a Corned Beef dinner.  

I also do the 'Chinese Mince' dish, with heaps of cabbage and rice and I can think of a great use for the leaves in about 4 months time...

but other than that... 

What do you do with Cabbage?

Cook your own Beets

 For some strange reason I just can't seem to get enough Beetroot at the moment !! 

 When I found a 2kg bag of fresh local grown beets at the market for just a $1.99, they were bought home and pickled up within the hour. I had bought a few fresh beets here and there in the past, sometimes they were roasted and sometimes added to a salad but I  had never cooked and pickled them before, I was surprised just how simple it actually was and how delicious!!

 The beets were boiled up until they were tender, this took about   3/4 of an hour or so . . .

While they were cooking I boiled up 2 cups of white vinegar, 1/2 cup of sugar, 1/2 doz cloves and peppercorns, a couple of bay leaves and a dash of cinnamon. 

  When the beetroot were cooked, I removed the skins and sliced them up, stacked them into some sterilized jars, poured over the strained vinegar solution, capped them off and popped them into a water bath.  I adapted this recipe from a few on line recipes, my mothers preserving wisdom and my own sense of common knowledge, it tastes terrific so far, and I presume like most preserves they will get even better with age? 

YUM!  A slice or two of this stuff on a big fat hamburger makes it just so extra tasty and juicy and have you ever tried beetroot, rocket and fetta? A great easy salad to take to your next BBQ.

There'll be no cans of Beetroot stored away in our pantry anymore, you'll only find it hidden away with the jam at the back of the home preserves cabinet!

My Garden Beetroot should be ready in another couple of months, Half of this lot will be eaten raw, grated with sandwiches and salads and the other half I might just Pickle . . .
Are you a Beetroot Lover?

Tea Anyone?

Many many years ago when our family consisted of only two adults and two children, we would wake up on a Sunday morning and treat ourselves to a nice big  breakfast of Bacon and Eggs and sit sipping an endless pot of tea on the back deck . . .

Our Sunday mornings soon got a little more hectic with the addition of a third, fourth and fifth child and for a while there, there was no such thing as Sunday morning breakfast, come to think of it there still isn't !! 

BUT, we have started a new tradition.  To avoid the rush first thing in the morning we have started 'Doing Tea'  on the Weekends, Morning Tea or Afternoon Tea, it doesn't matter, no pressure . . . as long as it done together,  with a pot of Tea for mum and dad, 

a pot of Milo for the kids

and a batch of freshly baked Pikelets, Scones or Cake of the Day! 

I keep this recipe stapled inside my kitchen cupboard 

Pikelets

3 eggs

4 tabsp sugar

2 cups milk

3 cups sr flour

sprinkle of salt

2 tabsp melted butter

Place eggs, sugar and milk onto a bowl and whisk well together

Beat in flour and salt then add melted butter and mix to make a nice smooth batter. 

Drop dessertspoonfuls onto a hot buttered fry pan.  Turn over once bubbles start to appear on the top and cook on the other side.

Serve with a lather of butter, sprinkle of sugar and squeeze of fresh lemon juice

This batch makes up about 25 - 30 pikelets.

ENJOY !!  We do . . .

On My Mind...

I can not stop thinking about the Pavlova we had for our 

'If you Eat all your Dinner' treat last night, it was made with freshly laid eggs, and topped with our own sour passionfruit and freshly picked strawberries from our trip to the berry farm earlier in the week.

Half of it still sits in the fridge, I can't resist it any longer.  Is it OK to have a slice with a cuppa  for morning tea....   I think so.....  :)

BEST EVER and as always EASY . . .

Pavlova Recipe

6 large eggs,  at room temperature

(The fresher the eggs the better, as the eggs whites are firmer)

1  ¼  cups caster sugar

2 teasp cornflour

1 teasp white vinegar

1/2 teasp vanilla extract

Firstly Preheat your oven to 120°C.

Line  a baking tray with baking paper or alfoil, lightly grease and  dust with a little cornflour and put to the side.

Separate the eggs, we are using the whites only.  Be very careful not to get any yolk into the white as it will not whisk up to the proper consistency that is needed for a meringue.

The yolks can still be used for other baking, store in the fridge but do use within two days.

Beat the egg whites with electric mixer until soft peaks form.

Gradually add the sugar a little at a time,  beating well after each addition, until meringue is thick and glossy and sugar dissolved.

Add cornflour, vinegar and vanilla and whisk until just combined.

Spoon the meringue mixture into the centre of your lined baking tray,

Shape the Pavlova into an even circle and use a spatula to smooth out the top and edges.

Bake in the oven for approx 1 ½ hours, gently touch the Pavlova, It should be dry.

Turn off oven and leave Pavlova in oven with the door slightly open until it is completely cold.

Gently transfer your Pavlova to a serving plate ready to decorate.

 Beat 300 mls of thickened cream with 1 teasp icing sugar until thick and spreadable.

Layer cream over the top of the Pavlova.

Then just add your favourite toppings.  I used Strawberries and Passionfruit today but any combination of mixed berries or tropical fruits are fine.

ENJOY!!

On my mind today with Rhonda @ Down to Earth 

Passionfruit under attack!!

THE CULPRIT

 Grrr....My mouth has been watering awaiting the ripening of the passionfruits and then this! They're nearly all gone! My Passionfruit vine actually climbs over the chook coop, the Cockatoos are still able to take the ones growing on the outside of the coop but I don't think they have realise that when they bite the fruit off the stems, ready to devour them, most of them being on the inside of the coop, drop down and out of their reach. HA! 

 The problem I do have though is most of the ones they do bite off are not quite ripe . . . I have put them aside and waited  for them to ripen up but they tend to go rotten before they ripen and sweeten ready to eat, so I've just had to come up with some ways of eating them on them still a little on the SOUR side.

I have two vines, a Yellow Panama Passionfruit and a Purple Panama Passionfruit.

I have managed to save about 3 cups of passionfruit pulp, I have frozen this and will use it up in my Baking as it is needed.

If it lasts that long....They may be a little sour but it doesn't seem to mater when they're ICE BLOCKS!

I made up a nice batch of Fresh Yogurt 

Stirred through a couple of Passionfruit and a good drizzle of Honey, You would never have known they were not sun ripened fruit.

I made Passionfruit and Dried Apricot Jam, 

The Sweetest Jam you'll ever taste!

 And mixed with Condensed milk it makes for a wonderful Passionfruit Slice

I still have plenty of ideas up my sleeve, next raid I plan on making Pavlova and Melting Moments with passionfruit Icing.  

Any other ideas would be greatly appreciated, as would some advice on keeping Cockatoo's out of the Garden!  

But now, I'm off to enjoy some more fresh Passionfruit Yogurt!

More Nuts Please

Our fresh bag of Peanuts seems to be never ending, I have made up two lots of boiled peanuts so far and our little dish of fresh nuts that sits on the kitchen bench is topped up nearly everyday. 

This week I got  a little adventurous with my nuts, turning them from a healthy little snack into a surprise sweet treat for all.

Fresh is Best!

but Sugar Coated is better!!  

First you need to get yourself a few helping hands to shell your big bag of nuts . . .

We are very lucky to have fresh peanuts to shell and cook but any standard store bought raw peanuts can be used, just make sure you get the ones with the red skin still on them as the sugar coating will not stick to any nuts without the skins.

Sugar Coated Peanuts

1 cup of sugar

3 cups raw peanuts

1/2 cup water

1/2 tablespoon of cochineal or pink food colouring

Toss all ingredients into a large fry pan or saucepan, stir through and bring to the boil.

Stir continuously for approx 5 minutes until all the water evaporates and the sugar crystalises on the peanuts. 

Remove the coated peanuts from the pan and place on a baking tray to dry and cool down. 

Share with your family and friends