Lightening Online

…or should that be making?????  Cos the oven certainly isn’t on today.  It’s warm and rather steamy here today with more rain expected tomorrow (making it even stickier!).  So I’m rather glad that my Christmas “baking” mostly goes in the fridge, rather than the oven.    I’m glad I’ve already finished with baking shortbread as that does need to go in the oven.

I’ve been given the job of “homemade treats” for Christmas Day this year.  My in laws know me well!  It’s great because I’m making a heap of treats for gifts anyway.

Naturally I had to start with the old Christmas faithful - Rocky Road!  Over a few days I’m working my way through whatever I get to….starting with the ones I REALLY want to get made and adding to those if I get enough time and energy.  So, here are my “recipes” I’ve made so far (not everything has a recipe so I’ll do my best to explain what I do).

ROCKY ROAD

1 packet chocolate melts (mine are 375g)

about 1/4 packet of copha (250g or 1/2 pound size pack)

1/2 - 1 packet marshmallows

red jube lollies (I didn’t have any this time so just picked out red, white and green jelly beans)

salted peanuts (you can use unsalted but I like the taste of salt and chocolate together, you can also leave these out)

Melt chocolate melts and copha using a medium heat in the microwave - 1 minute at a time.  Stir between minutes and continue until melted.  Add marshmallows, jubes and salted peanuts.  I add some of each until the chocolate looks to be “chock full” of stuff.  Pour into a tray lined with baking paper and set in fridge.  Cut into bite size pieces or whatever size you prefer.

Alternative suggestions: some people like coconut in their rocky road (I don’t).  You could also add something like rice bubbles instead of peanuts to make these a little more “kid friendly”.

HOMEMADE CHOCOLATE

My mum had the most awesome recipe for this that I can’t seem to lay my hands on.     Here’s the closest recipe I was able to find.

125g copha

125g icing sugar

6 Tbsp cocoa

4 Tbsp milk powder

pinch salt

Sift dry ingredients.  Melt copha and mix into dry mixture.  You need to work fast.  Pour into mini patty pans or into a thin layer in a baking tray.  Refrigerate.  If you make it in a slab, break into pieces when set.  You could also drop spoonfuls onto a tray lined with baking paper.

I made up a double mixture as that used a full package of copha.  About 1/3 was mixed with rice bubbles and the rest had salted peanuts added to it.  I was able to get some Christmas mini patty pans from Spotlight this year and used those.  This double mix made around 90 chocolates.

It’s quite a strong tasting recipe so you don’t want to overdo the cocoa, unless you prefer it that way! 

CHOCOLATE CHEESECAKE BALLS

1 packet cream cheese

2 packets of chocolate biscuits filled with vanilla cream (eg oreos, delta creams….)

Blend in food processor, roll into balls and set in fridge.  Dip into white, milk or dark chocolate.

APRICOT COCONUT BALLS

1 tin/can consensed milk (or 1 quantity homemade condensed milk)

2 cups dried apricots (chopped/diced)

3 cups coconut

extra coconut for rolling in

Combine ingredients together, roll into balls then roll in coconut.  Set in fridge.  Makes approximately 60 balls.

This is as far as I have gotten so far.  I’ll be back to add some more if and when I get to them.

Yesterday I mentioned I made shortbread for our children’s teachers as end of year/Christmas gifts.  It’s a bit of a tradition in this household that each year I make a large batch of shortbread to use for gifts and also as part of our Christmas yummies for ourselves (and whoever we’re sharing Christmas with).

It can actually be a bit of a trial some years finding a day that’s not too hot (we’re in summer here in Australia) in order to crank the oven up.  But it’s worth it.  What surprised me when I first started making these was how cheap they work out to make in comparison to how expensive shortbread is to buy.

 So, if you’re looking for a frugal gift for someone that’s sure to “wow”, considering making something like this.

LIGHTENING’S SHORTBREAD

250g butter (real butter not margarine)

125g castor sugar

300g plain flour

175g arrowroot

pinch salt

Allow butter to soften to room temperature.  Cream butter and sugar together (try not to eat too much of the yummy sweet buttery mixture).  Sift in arrowroot.  Add salt.  Slowly mix together and add enough plain flour for the mixture to form a firmish dough.  You may not need ALL of the flour and in some instances you may need a little more.  Flour can vary in how dry it is - older flours need more moisture.  Form into a ball and place in a covered bowl in the fridge (or wrap in plastic wrap).  Make sure you disguise your dough or your husband will keep pilfering bits of it until there is none left to cook!!!!

When mixture has become firm, roll out and cut into desired shapes with a cookie cutter.  I have a small star cookie cutter which is just perfect for these (I find a small cookie gives them a more decadent look).  The easiest way I find to roll out the dough is using a sheet of baking paper on top of the dough which prevents the roller from sticking to the dough (saves you having to shake flour all over the roller every 5 seconds too).

Bake slowly in a moderately slow oven (around 160C) for around 20 minutes or until the shortbread turns a pale golden colour.  While still warm, drop shapes into a bowl of castor sugar, turning so that they coat on all sides.  Cool on a rack.

Some more notes:

* arrowroot is a fine flour.  If you can’t get hold of this you could try substituting with an alternative fine flour.  I used half arrowroot and half cornflour yesterday (wanted a double batch and couldn’t find the rest of my arrowroot) and they taste no different to me.

* I usually make a double mix and use a single 500g packet of butter (that would be equivalent to a pound for those of you overseas).

* salt is the magic ingredient so DON’T leave it out. 

* if you don’t have time for all the rolling, cutting and dipping in castor sugar, you can make this mix up in one or two circle dishes, bake and then cut into wedges while still warm.

Conversions and explanations for those not in Australia:

* plain flour is simply flour with no raising agents in it (we have plain flour and self raising flour as our most common baking flours here)

* castor sugar is more finely ground than regular sugar (still granular - not a powder - but the granules are much smaller)

* 175g is approximately 6.2 ounces or 0.38 pounds

* 300g is approximately 10.5 ounces or 0.66 pounds

* 250g is 0.5 pounds (therefore doubling to use 500g is approximately 1 pound)

* 160C is 320F

Conversions were made using online conversion.

ENJOY!   (I need a smiley with a little santa hat on!)

Acknowledgement: This recipe was originally a Tonia Todman recipe that I’ve tweeked to make it how I like it.  I *think* I’ve made enough changes to the original that I can now claim it as my own.  Feel free to pass it around….. recipes are made for sharing!   Of course, a link back here is always appreciated.

I made this recipe the other day. It never fails to be a hit in this house or anywhere we go. Personally, I’m not that big a muffin fan. Unfortunately I quite like these (unfortunately because then I eat more than I should). I had planned to take a photo to post but got lazy I’m afraid.

Anyway, here is the recipe. It’s a Tupperware one and I think being given a magnet with the recipe on it is once of the most useful freebies Tupperware have ever given me!!!! I always know where to find the recipe - stuck to the side of the filing cabinet. LOL. It certainly looks well used these days (the magnet that is, not the filing cabinet - you can’t tell how well used that looks as it’s covered in all kinds of crap).

Now, where was I? Oh yeah, the recipe:

TRIPLE CHOCOLATE MUFFINS

3 cups plain flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
1 1/4 cups milk
3 Tbsp cocoa
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
2/3 cup dark choc bits
2/3 cup white choc bits
120g butter, melted
2 x 60g eggs, beaten

Preheat oven to 160C. Grease 5cm muffin pan. Sift flour, cocoa and baking powder into bowl (they suggest “mix-n-pour” as all tupperware recipes are designed for making in their products - as you would expect). Add brown sugar & choc chips. Mix. Add butter, milk and eggs. Mix. 3/4 fill each of the muffin moulds, bake 20 minutes. Cool 10 minutes in the tin before turning out.

Some notes from me:

* This is a rather large mix. Yesterday I made up a double mix and it was too much for my largest mixing bowl (which is a largish stainless steel one). Well, it just fitted but I spilt a bit as I was trying to mix it.

* One of the benefits of using the mix-n-pour if you have one is that you can see if all the flour is mixed in. Muffins should only be mixed until just mixed (not continually stirred or beaten) but it’s no fun to get half way through scooping the mix into muffin tins to find that the bottom half hasn’t mixed properly.

* The Tupperware “mix-n-pour” is a jug that has a lid with a hole in the middle (it has a separate lid). This recipe fits just nicely into that jug - unless you double it like I did then you’ll have no hope. LOL. It’s okay, I didn’t try to fit a double mix in the jug.

* If you’re feeling lazy you can substitute plain flour for SR flour and skip the baking powder. No idea on the exact difference it makes as mine are never the same twice regardless. But I do know it works fine (that’s what I did yesterday).

* I very RARELY bother sifting flours and I don’t think I EVER have for this recipe. I’m a lazy cook.

* They taste good without the while choc chips (okay, maybe not JUST as good, but still pretty good). I just add a whole packet of generic choc chips instead. Having said that, when I made them yesterday I made them “according to the recipe” as I happened to have white choc chips in the cupboard.

* If you leave out the cocoa and choc chips and add cinnamon and cut up apple - they taste really yummy!!!! I’ve also made them with jam but the jam does make them a little heavier - would be better I think to add a dob of jam to the top of each muffin before cooking, rather than mix it through. Some jams would work okay with cocoa in the mix and some better leaving the cocoa out.

Well, I think I have redeemed myself. Here is todays version of my “bake a cake in the slow cooker” experiment.

A MUCH better outcome wouldn’t you agree?

Here it is all iced with the most buttery, chocolatey icing…….

It took around 2 hours to cook in the slow cooker using a combination of high and low settings (high for 45 minutes then low until done). Test for “done-ness” with a skewer. It is hard to tell from looking at it as some moisture condenses on the glass lid and drops on to the top of the cake, making it look “uncooked” when it is in fact cooked. As long as you plan on icing the cake, that small amount of moisture won’t affect the outcome of your masterpiece.

This time I sprayed the crockpot/slow cooker insert with oil, then lined with baking paper and then sprayed that with oil before pouring in the cake mixture. Might have been overkill but at least it didn’t STICK!

I used a double quantity of the following recipe:

CHOCOLATE FUDGE CAKE

1.5 cups SR flour

3 Tbsp cocoa

1 cup castor sugar

1 cup water

1 tsp imitation vanilla essence

1 Tbsp white vinegar

1/2 cup vegetable oil

Chuck everything in a bowl together and mix until there aren’t *too* many lumps. LOL. You can mix until smooth but I’m a lazy cook. You don’t want to overmix it either.

This is a fudge cake so expect it to be a heavier, fudgier type consistency than a regular cake. I just tasted a bit and I think it tastes even better having been cooked in the slow cooker than when I cook it in the oven.

I love the oval shape as well. It would have come in handy a few years back when I made a football oval for DS’s birthday cake!

DH is happy because now I’ll be able to bake cakes while we’re away on our “big trip” in the caravan.

Mission Accomplished!

It was his idea that I attempt to cook a cake in the slow cooker in the first place. LOL. Works for me. Now I only have to use 4c electricity to bake a cake as opposed to around 36c. And bake in summer without heating up the house!

I’ve been busy making pies this morning. My 9 year old was wanting me to make *real* pies this time. My first attempt was chicken and vegetable pies (which were yum in my opinion but not so yum according to the kids) and my second attempt was steak and mushroom (which went down slightly better with the kids). So today I’ve been making *real* pies with mince and gravy.

Hopefully they won’t notice that I’ve added TVP and red lentils to the mixture. LOL. I actually made up the mix in the crockpot yesterday. Today was making the pastry and rolling it out and assembling the pies. It’s a bit time consuming but I don’t really mind. To me it’s worth it to know what has gone into my pies.

This time I used bought mince but from now on I’m thinking of making my own mince. I bought a large beef roast on sale recently and chopped it up and put it into my food processor and it made lovely looking mince. The smell almost put me off meat for life but it’s nice to be confident of what we’re eating. I do have a couple of packets of bought mince that need using though so one of those went in the pie filling.

Here’s a picture of my “pile of pies”:

Like all good bloggers, I hid the ones that didn’t look quite as good on the bottom of the pile. LOL. I don’t know why I get so hung up on perfection. After all, there is something so clinical about food that all looks *exactly* the same isn’t there. Here’s a slightly more close up view of my pies:

I’m trying to work out how much they cost to make. Most of my figures are approximate/guestimates.

For the filling:

2 cups TVP - 80c

1 cup red lentils - 30c

574g mince - 3.44

4 Tbsp gravy powder - 20c

2 Tbsp cornflour - 5c

hearty beef soup sachet (I didn’t have any beef stock) - 25c

1 Tbsp tomato paste - 20c

shallots - from the garden, cost negligible

salt & pepper - cost negligible

water - free

Total $4.99

I used just over half the mixture (froze the rest for another time) so approx $2.50 or slightly more.

Pastry:

250g butter - $1.10

2 3/4 cups plain flour - 30c

2 3/4 cups SR flour - 30c

Total for pastry: $1.70

Total cost for 20 pies: $4.20 so 21c each. Bargain!

If you want to make up the pastry you add 1 cup hot to butter and mix until butter dissolves. Then mix the lot together with the flour (I use a dough hook on my Kenwood). Then I shove it in the fridge to cool down a bit to make rolling out easier.

I made a discovery today with the pastry too. With using up the scraps, instead of trying to squish them together in a ball and then roll out again (which is hard as the pastry gets tough), I just overlapped all the rolled out bits and rolled them together. Was much quicker and easier and they seemed to stick together alright (just don’t use too much flour on your board the first time round).

I can’t vouch for how my filling recipe (if you can call it that) tastes as I haven’t tasted it yet. DH did a taste test last night and told me it tasted nice so fingers crossed it passes the family test at tea tonight. We’re having meat pies, chips and salad for tea tonight. It’s fake take away night tonight.

I think I must have been bitten by the cooking bug these past 2 days. Yesterday I made a big pot of tomato and vegetable soup (having some for lunch right now in fact). Also made an experimental batch of crumpets. Added more raising agents to try and get a lighter crumpet. I did succeed in a lighter crumpet but had very few holes so I’m still going to experiment with the recipe a little more. I also made the pie filling yesterday. Today I have made the pies and a batch of yoghurt as well as some spreadable butter (butter and olive oil whizzed together).

I’m looking forward to a nice quiet afternoon this afternoon!

DH has made me some crumpet rings by cutting up a large tinned fruit can. 6 fit perfectly in my rectangular electric frypan. I’ve been working on perfecting the original recipe I was given. The first batch I made didn’t have many holes in them. Then I found out from another person who makes their own crumpets that my recipe was missing the rising time.

Here they are - a batch of crumpets in my rings, just starting to bubble away.

And here they are, almost cooked. The verdict was that they now looked like bought crumpets (with the holes in the top) and they tasted like bought crumpets (well, better if you ask me). However, they still weren’t as light as a bought crumpet.

So, I intend to play around with the recipe a little more and see what I can come up with. What I still can’t get over is how easy they are to make. They are a little time consuming as I can only cook 6 at a time (and the recipe makes about 18) but other than that, they’re really so easy and so much cheaper than their shop bought counterparts. Plus I know exactly what has gone into them.

Here’s the recipe:

Dissolve 1 Tbsp yeast into 3 cups warm water. Stir.

Combine: 4 cups plain flour, 2 Tbsp baking powder, 1.5 tsp salt, 1.5 tsp sugar in a bowl.

Add yeast mixture to dry ingredients and beat to a smooth batter.

Allow to stand for approximately 1 hour.

Cook in greased egg rings in frypan (3/4 fill each one). Egg rings make them slightly smaller than regular round crumpets. I think the cut up tin will make a better size. If you’re not worried about having them perfectly round you can just add dollops of mixture to frypan.

The original recipe I have suggests cooking slowly for 10 minutes, adding the lid of the frypan for the last 2 minutes (which just finishes them cooking on top). I found using setting 5 on my electric frypan gave me the best number of holes in the top. I’m still experimenting with this so I’ll let you know how I go next time I give them a try.

This made enough for our family for 2 meals (about 24 crumpets in total) served with soup.

* Just a note - you still need to toast these, just as you would with bought crumpets.

Chicken Wraps and Knitted Wraps. Not a good idea to get them mixed up either. Not sure my knitted wrap would taste all that great and I try hard not to wear my chicken wrap (although they do have a reputation for being a tad messy lol).

I’ll start with the knitted kind first. Here’s a few photo’s of my completed project. I’m trialling them in a small size this time. If you want to see the photo up close, just click on it and you’ll get a full page view.

This is the wrap I’ve just finished making. I used 1 strand of 8 ply black wool and 1 strand of black feathers yarn (held together as if they were a single strand). The loom used was the yellow loom (largest one) and used in a back and forward motion (as opposed to going around and around the loom) using all pegs. I wrapped using an “e” stitch (the only stitch I know how to do so far LOL) - wrapping 2 pegs and then skipping 1, wrapping 2, skipping 1 and so on. I just stitched until it was as long as I wanted then finished it off with the most basic method for finishing a flat item. A very simple project (which is what I wanted given I’ve just started).

Here is me modelling the wrap. I wore it to church this morning and it was beautiful and warm (we have a very cold church building). DD has decided she wants me to make her one as well.

You can wear it any number of ways. I’m getting the giggles here as I’m not used to being a model. LOL.

Now I’ve just gone silly. But what I was trying to show here was that it can be folded in half and worn as a regular scarf as well.

So there you have it. If you have any questions about the method for making one of these wraps, just let me know.

Now, onto CHICKEN WRAPS. Which we had for tea last night once I had the tortillas made. They turned out very yummy. I used a cut up chicken breast coated in a bought chicken coating called “Southern Fried Chicken”. One of these days I’ll hopefully figure out how to make it from scratch but for now it’s just babysteps, babysteps…one thing at a time. We added grated cheese, grated carrot and shredded lettuce (plus whatever dressings were desired - I don’t have any) simply as that’s what we happened to have available. Sorry, I couldn’t take a photo for you - they didn’t last long enough! LOL.

As I was making the Tortillas, I wondered to myself whether or not I’d bother doing them again. It was a bit time consuming. Mind you, I wasn’t in any hurry so I did enjoy just rolling them out quite slowly. The mixing them up and the cooking are both quick and simple. Rolling them out was the more time consuming and tiring task.

However, once I’d tasted one, I knew I wasn’t going to be able to go back to bought Tortillas. I think I’ve grown up with preservatives in all my food and it’s not until you start to eat more “real” food without them that you realise how much of a taste they really have (the preservatives that is). As I was eating my first wrap, it was quite a strange sensation. It was like all of a sudden I could taste the preservatives in the bought ones (in my memory that is) by the contrast in taste with the freshly made ones. So, it’s looking like I’ll need to do a few more push-ups to build my upper arm strength ready for the next time chicken wraps are on the menu. LOL. Mind you, rolling them out wasn’t a bad upper arms workout in itself.

Here is the recipe, with my own adaptations made:

TORTILLAS

1.5 cups wholemeal flour
1 cup plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
3 Tbsp olive oil
3/4 cup warm water

Combine dry ingredients into a food processor or electric mixer with dough attachment. Add oil then gradually add water until it forms a dough (I used an electric mixer with dough attachment and found I mixed the last of the dough together with my hands while kneeding - not sure if a food processor would be different to this or not).

Kneed for 5 minutes and then leave the dough to rest (for how long I’m not sure, I think I allowed about half an hour or so).

Divide into 10 pieces and roll into a thin round shape.

Cook quickly in a hot, lightly oiled frypan until they bubble and start to brown (takes less than a minute most times) then turn and brown on the other side.

If you’re not using them straight away - wrap in a damp teatowel to keep them soft. You can rewarm them wrapped in alfoil (as you’d warm bought ones) but I just cooked them straight before we ate them (DH made them into wraps as they came out of the pan - can’t get much fresher than that! ).

For as long as I can remember, my grandmother has always kept a range of slices cut up in the freezer, ready to pull out at a moments notice when guests arrive or for taking to “bring a plate” type functions.

Her lemon slice is a favourite amongst all her family members and she’s quite well known for it amongst friends as well. It always seems to be the first to disappear on a plate of mixed slice.

I’ve never been a slice maker myself. Not 100% sure why. I bake cakes and muffins and biscuits, but rarely slice. I think I’ve always considered them a little more on the complicated side (one of the reasons I *really* like baking muffins is that I don’t have to ice them LOL). And often they have fruit and/or nuts in them which makes them that little bit more expensive and my children won’t eat dried fruit (and aren’t allowed to eat nuts until they’re 7).

I was planning to make a couple of slice recipes up today. We need to take a plate of dessert for our family service at church tomorrow and I needed to find something I could make with ingredients in the cupboard. I knew I’d spotted a chocolate weetbix slice on a thread on the Simple Savings forum and thought I’d try that. We were also given some lemons last week and free lemons always makes me think of making Grandma’s Lemon Slice.

For some reason the urge to bake hit me at about 5pm last night. That would have worked out okay except for the fact that I couldn’t get the lid off my new food processor and had to wait until DH got home to pull it off for me. Not to be perturbed I went ahead and started my baking while DH finished tea off. Talk about a circus in the kitchen. Kids everywhere (some days I’m SURE we have more than 3 LOL) and benchtops covered in cut up salad (I’d already started preparing the hamburgers for tea before DH got home), an electric frypan, food processor and numerous baking ingredients. I got the lemon slice made and in the fridge before tea, then made the chocolate slice between main course and dessert (while the kids were still eating). That cooked while we had dessert and then after tea I iced both slices. Absolute madness!!!! My excuse was that I could reuse most of the dishes for both slices and cut down on the number of dishes piling up with the tea dishes. In reality, when I get an idea in my head - I find it hard to change course. Full bore ahead! LOL.

I have just sampled both slices and they are waaaayyyyy too more-ish. Maybe that’s the reason I don’t regularly make slices? Here are the recipes if you want to try this at home:

GRANDMA’S LEMON SLICE

1/2 tin condensed milk
4 oz margarine or butter
1/2 pound crushed biscuits
1 cup coconut
rind of 1 lemon
juice of half a lemon (use the other half in the icing)

Melt condensed milk and butter together. Crush biscuits and mix with coconut and lemon rind. Mix together all ingredients including juice of 1/2 lemon. Spread in a slice tray and refrigerate until set.

Make up lemon icing using juice of other half lemon and ice when set. Sprinkle top with extra coconut.

If you’d like to make this recipe even cheaper or you find you don’t have any condensed milk on hand - you can make your own! Here is the recipe (thanks to Hillbilly Housewife):

SWEETENED CONDENSED MILK

1 cup dry milk powder
2/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup boiling water
3 Tbsp margarine

Milk until smooth. Makes the equivalent of 1 can of condensed milk. Remember the above recipe only uses half - I just halved the ingredients as I made this so I had the right quantity for my lemon slice. Alternatively you can make a double batch of the lemon slice but I didn’t have 2 packets of biscuits to do that with.

EASY CHOCOLATE SLICE
3 crushed weetbix
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup SR flour
1 cup coconut
4 tsp cocoa
4 oz butter

Melt butter and add to other ingredients. Press into tin. Cook in moderate overn for 15 minutes. Ice while warm with chocolate icing.

This is GREAT if you get a craving for chocolate and don’t have any on hand. Mind you, as I was typing the recipe I realised that I read the cocoa as Tbsp not tsp so mine is probably a little more chocolatey than the actual recipe. LOL. Lucky you can never have too much chocolate eh?

And don’t do what I did and try to ice it straight out of the oven. It’s very soft when it first comes out of the oven. Let it cool a little like you would biscuits before trying to ice the top.

My 9 year old DS has been asking for chocolate crackles for a few weeks now. This past week I finally bought some copha and suggested to him that he could make them. He was stoked at that idea (quite enjoys being handy in the kitchen - must train him up a bit more, might make my life a little easier :-)).

Of course the younger 2 wanted to get in on the action too. Ordinarily I let them help me when I cook but since this was DS’s project, they had to be content with just watching.

DD has a Barbie cooking book and was asking to make something from that. We found a really simple but effective idea that all the kids could get involved in (I wasn’t keen to start any project that involved too much effort - Sunday afternoon’s are usually a quiet time in this household).

APPLE AND CHEESE SAILBOATS

Cut apple into 8 sections. Remove the core from each section. Cut triangle shapes from any block cheese (we used matured cheddar as that’s what was in the fridge). Then you use a toothpick to attach the cheese “sail” to your apple “boat”.

They looked quite effective, the kids had fun putting the pieces together (and counting that they had 8 of each item). At the end they had a nice healthy snack to munch on.

I’ll have to remember that for during the school holidays when they just need a bit of a distraction.

And I still had enough energy (just) to make some sausage rolls for tea. I’ve been meaning to make them for a while now and it kept getting put off. I think resting yesterday has probably paid off in the energy stakes. I can smell them now - must be about ready to come out of the oven. Mmmmmm….gotta love homemade sausage rolls.

And I don’t mean the kind that NSW has just suffered through!!! How awful!

I’m talking about my big day in the kitchen on Saturday. Once upon a time I used to do a bit of a baking session once a fortnight and try to make enough to last the fortnight (that’s getting more of a challenge as the kids get older). But recently I’ve discovered the enjoyment of just doing one thing at a time and I’ve tended to extend that to my cooking. A big baking session often involved having several projects on the go at once and trying to co-ordinate all of that. Just making one thing (whether it be a cake or a batch of biscuits or whatever) seems so much more peaceful and pleasurable in comparison.

But for some reason Saturday I decided I was going to make a number of things. Back to my busy, multiple projects type session. Actually, it wasn’t too bad. Mostly I just worked on 1 thing at a time (other than the bread rolls which take a lot longer).

PROJECT 1: FILL UP THE CROCKPOT WITH VEGETABLE SOUP

My aim was to have this ready for lunch on Saturday but I slept in so things were a little crunchy still by lunchtime. LOL. Not to worry, it was mainly for lunches for this week. Had my first taste test today (we were out all day yesterday - Sunday) and mmmmm….yummo! I have never been a fan of homemade vegetable soup before. But using a tomato base for the “stock” seems to suit my tastes well. I never use a recipe so my soups never taste the same from one time to the next.

Here’s a rough outline of how I made it:

* put jar of passata into crockpot then fill jar with water, shake and add that to crockpot. Add beans (already soaked - I use about half a packet) and a couple handfuls of soup mix. I add whatever I tend to have in the way of pulses to the soup whether it be dried or tinned, beans, peas or lentils (or a combination of). Chuck in some diced onion and crushed garlic (I think I used about 1/4 onion and a healthy teaspoon of crushed garlic). You can add whatever seasonings you like really. We’re fairly basic eaters when it comes to seasonings. I usually let that cook for a little while to get the beans etc going. You wouldn’t need to do that if you were using canned (which are a little more expensive) or if you’ve precooked the beans/peas.

* chop up whatever vegies you happen to have - this time I used carrots, potatoes, sweet potatoes plus cut up the smaller stems of the celery and the stems of the broccoli (sometimes I’ll chop and freeze celery and broccoli stems and throw in next time I’m making soup - it’s a good way to use up the bits most of the family don’t usually eat). I also added a couple of generous dollops of tomato paste and topped up with a bit more water. Then leave to simmer away for however long.

I love the way soup is so cheap to make, healthy to eat and hard to go wrong with. It’s such a yummy and comforting food to eat on cold wintery days (just like today!).

PROJECT NUMBER 2: CRUMPETS

You know, I didn’t even know it was possible to make your own crumpets until a couple of weeks ago. DH and the kids love crumpets (I’m not such a fan but will eat them). I tend to buy them occasionally as a treat when they’re on special. I find they work out a fairly expensive way to feed the family so we don’t have them all that often. So when I saw this recipe for crumpets posted on the simple savings forum by Paula (the legend) I thought it was well worth the try. I couldn’t believe how easy and cheap it was. They were a hit with the family (although I’m still experimenting to work out how to make them with holes like the bought ones). Even without holes, they still definitely taste like crumpets (in my opinion they’re nicer than bought crumpets). The most time consuming part of the recipe is cooking them but DH is going to try and make me some rings (by cutting up a fruit tin) so that I can cook more at once which will make things progress quicker.

Here’s the recipe:

Dissolve 1 Tbsp yeast into 3 cups warm water. Stir.

Combine: 4 cups plain flour, 2 Tbsp baking powder, 1.5 tsp salt, 1.5 tsp sugar in a bowl.

Add yeast mixture to dry ingredients and beat to a smooth batter.

Cook in greased egg rings in frypan (3/4 fill each one). Egg rings make them slightly smaller than regular round crumpets. I think the cut up tin will make a better size. If you’re not worried about having them perfectly round you can just add dollops of mixture to frypan.

The original recipe I have suggests cooking slowly for 10 minutes, adding the lid of the frypan for the last 2 minutes (which just finishes them cooking on top). I found using setting 5 on my electric frypan gave me the best number of holes in the top. I’m still experimenting with this so I’ll let you know how I go next time I give them a try.

This made enough for our family for 2 meals (about 24 crumpets in total) served with soup.

* Just a note - you still need to toast these, just as you would with bought crumpets.

PROJECT 3: CUPCAKES

Well I’m sure you don’t really need a recipe for these. The kids did have a great time scooping them into the patty pans. For some reason my kids will eat a cupcake whereas they won’t eat a slice of regular cake. So they make a great lunchbox filler (if any make it until tomorrow to go in the lunchboxes). I can’t believe how cheap they are to make - between 5 and 10c each. There aren’t too many things I can find (except popcorn) that work out quite this cheap as a lunchbox treat.

PROJECT 4: BREAD ROLLS

I use my breadmaker to make the kids bread rolls for school. They give them a nice break from sandwiches and work out quite a bit cheaper than 2 slices of bread. One lot of dough in the breadmaker gives me 12 rolls which works out to around 10c each (might be a little higher now that everything seems to have gone up). The cheapest loaf of bread I can buy here works out to around 30c per sandwich (just under).

PROJECT 5: PITA BREAD SNACKS

My DS has decided that these are the best thing since sliced bread! They’re pretty easy to make and don’t work out all that expensive. I buy the pita bread when it’s on sale for $1.99. I know in the city it’s sometimes possible to pick up a pack for as little as 99c which would make this recipe even cheaper to make! The main thing I like about it is that it’s a lot healthier for the kids to crunch on than chips. You just cut the pita bread up into pieces (whatever size and shape you like) then separate each slice in half and place on an oven tray with the cooked side down. Spray the whole tray with some cooking spray and then sprinkle on seasoning of choice (I use a chicken seasoning). Cook in the oven until crisp. One packet of pita bread makes quite a large container full.

PROJECT 6: CREAM OF MUSHROOM SOUP

Well I wore myself out completely on Saturday so project 6 had to wait until today. DH has been picking quite a few mushrooms from the paddock. Just recently I’d seen a recipe for “Cream of Anything Soup” (thanks to the same Paula who provided the crumpet recipe). With free mushrooms (and DH had already eaten some so I knew they were safe) I decided to try my hand at making cream of mushroom soup. I use the tinned variety when cooking steak in the crockpot as a kind of gravy and it comes out yummy, yummy. Again I couldn’t believe how quick and easy this recipe turned out to be. I now have what I’d estimate to be 10 tins of cream of mushroom soup (which I will freeze when it has cooled) for the cost of around 2 cans (on special).

CREAM OF ANYTHING SOUP
4 cups powdered milk
1.5 cups cornflour
0.5 cups chicken stock
4 tsp onion flakes
2 tsp dried thyme
2 tsp dried basil
1 tsp pepper

Mix together and store in an airtight jar. To make up soup use 1/3 cup of mixture in 1 mug hot water.

As I tend to do with recipes I just adapted the above idea to suit what I had on hand and what I wanted to do. I used 1/4 fresh onion chopped up since I bought some cheap recently (and it didn’t matter as I didn’t need the recipe to stay dry as is the intention with this recipe). Then I shook in some mixed herbs as that’s what I happened to have in the cupboard. I added 12 cups water and chopped up some mushrooms and threw them in. Then cooked on the stovetop until it thickened. I’ll freeze it in margarine containers ready to be thrown in the crockpot whenever I need it. With not having to pay anything for the mushrooms, I’m estimating that each “tin” of this soup has cost me around 25-30c to make.

Thus endeth my big cook up. After having DH’s grandfather and 2 aunties visit this morning (which was lovely I might add) and being out all day yesterday, I’m a bit on the tired side. So this afternoon is “take it easy” time.