I prefer to make my own things, rather than take shortcuts with packet meals, but I've learnt that it's okay to use flavour bases and add your own touch.
It would be nice to be able to make pasta or pastry from scratch, but sometimes we don't have the time.
You don't have to pay a fortune, or be a masterchef, to make good meals. You just need to keep a few basics in the pantry, fridge and freezer.
I shop fortnightly, so I try to think ahead, not so much plan every meal, but have on hand what I need to make whatever we feel like.
My pantry is stocked full of different types of dried pasta, canned tomatoes, jars of pasta sauce, chicken & beef stock, rice, herbs and spices, extra virgin olive oil, balsamic vinegar, as well as the previously blogged baking staples.
In the freezer, apart from the usual meat, I make sure I also have chicken fillets, mince and frozen puff pastry sheets on hand.
I hate chopping onions and garlic, its annoying and time consuming, so one of my tricks is to chop up a few onions at one time, them put them in a zip lock bag and keep in the freezer. This way I always have chopped onions on hand. As for the garlic, I buy minced garlic in a jar and keep it in the fridge for whenever its needed.
This weekend, I made a spaghetti bolagnaise, not the quick way I would always make it but a nice, flavoursome, slow cooked bolagnaise sauce, like it is supposed to be cooked.
I used mince, chopped onions, garlic, a jar of pasta sauce, a can of crushed tomatoes and tomato paste. It cooked for about 2 1/2 hours and it was beautiful.
It is probably the way a lot of you make it, but I am a bit of a shortcut queen, so I can usually whip up a spag bol in less than half an hour.
I also made a batch of cupcakes, for visitors. I haven't made cupcakes in ages, but as I mentioned, if you have the pantry well stocked, you can make anything at anytime.
The next day, I put roast beef in the slow cooker and went out for the afternoon.
When I come home, I put on some roast potatoes, veges and made some gravy.
No time, no effort, we had roast beef for dinner.
I suggest you take an itinerary of your pantry, make a list the basics you have, and the things you might need. Most things have a long shelf life, so its easy to stock up on things when they are on special.
We all have our own ways of doing things, learn from others and take ideas away.
We don't have to make gourmet meals, with expensive food, leave that for a night out and let the real chefs do the work.
BB
Sunday, 25 March 2012
Saturday, 17 March 2012
Recipe or Packet
We live in a very rushed society, where there is never enough hours in the day.
It's quicker to buy a packet of biscuits than make them fresh.
Its more convenient to have a cake mix in the pantry than to put in the time to make a cake from scratch.
This may be true, to a point, but nothing is nicer than freshly baked cakes or biscuits.
Packet cake mixes just need you to add the eggs, soft butter and liquid, pop it in the oven and 40-45 mins later presto, cake, add the prepared supplied frosting and in just over an hour you have a cake ready to eat.
How much easier than creaming the butter and sugar, adding the eggs, then flour, milk and everything else that is required. Not to mention the mess.
Yesterday I set myself a challenge, to see if I could bake a chocolate cake, with chocolate frosting in
around the same time as making a packet mix.
The first thing I did was set about finding a quick mix recipe. I found one in the trusty old PWMU cookbook:
180grams of butter softened
2 cups of self raising flour
4 tablespoons of cocoa
1 cup caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 eggs
1 cup of milk
Sift the dry ingredients together, add all the other ingredients into a mixing bowl and beat for 3 mins.
Pour into a greased, lined tin and bake for 40-45 mins.
While the mixture was beating, I prepared my cake tin.
While the cake was cooking, I cleaned up then made the frosting:
50 grams butter, softened
1 1/2 cups of icing sugar
2 tablespoons of cocoa
Beat all together adding a small amount of milk until desired consitency is met
When the cake come out of the oven, I turned it onto a cake cooler and iced while still warm.
Presto, in just over an hour, the cake was cool enough to eat.
Cheaper, easier and fresher than anything you can buy.
BB
It's quicker to buy a packet of biscuits than make them fresh.
Its more convenient to have a cake mix in the pantry than to put in the time to make a cake from scratch.
This may be true, to a point, but nothing is nicer than freshly baked cakes or biscuits.
Packet cake mixes just need you to add the eggs, soft butter and liquid, pop it in the oven and 40-45 mins later presto, cake, add the prepared supplied frosting and in just over an hour you have a cake ready to eat.
How much easier than creaming the butter and sugar, adding the eggs, then flour, milk and everything else that is required. Not to mention the mess.
Yesterday I set myself a challenge, to see if I could bake a chocolate cake, with chocolate frosting in
around the same time as making a packet mix.
The first thing I did was set about finding a quick mix recipe. I found one in the trusty old PWMU cookbook:
180grams of butter softened
2 cups of self raising flour
4 tablespoons of cocoa
1 cup caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 eggs
1 cup of milk
Sift the dry ingredients together, add all the other ingredients into a mixing bowl and beat for 3 mins.
Pour into a greased, lined tin and bake for 40-45 mins.
While the mixture was beating, I prepared my cake tin.
While the cake was cooking, I cleaned up then made the frosting:
50 grams butter, softened
1 1/2 cups of icing sugar
2 tablespoons of cocoa
Beat all together adding a small amount of milk until desired consitency is met
When the cake come out of the oven, I turned it onto a cake cooler and iced while still warm.
Presto, in just over an hour, the cake was cool enough to eat.
Quick Mix Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Frosting
It doesn't cost a lot of money to stock your pantry and fridge with the basics, flour, sugar, eggs, butter, milk.
With these 5 items, you can make an array of easy baked goods, and by also having handy things like cocoa, vanilla, 100s & 1000s, choc chips, golden syrup, food colouring and spices, you can make just about anything, in no time.
After I baked the cake, I cleaned up and made a batch of chocolate chip cookies. Again in less than an hour.
Cheaper, easier and fresher than anything you can buy.
BB
Saturday, 10 March 2012
Where does our food come from
Warning!!! Some of this content may cause some people to squirm.
Having spent a lot of my childhood holidays on my grandparents farm, a lot of my food memories stem from then.
Fresh meat and chicken, were always on the menu, and when I say fresh, I really mean fresh.
You hear the advertisements from Woolworths the "Fresh Food People," or fresh from the paddock to the table.
Our food really was from the paddock to the table.
We live in a society where people, like to think that milk comes from cartons, meat, chicken fruit and veges come from the supermarket.
We don't want to think of where our food actually comes from, or how it gets on the supermarket shelves, we just want to eat it.
If we think about it or even talk about it, god forbid what will happen to our children.
They need to be sheltered from such horrendous activities, as killing our animals to feed our families.
They have petting farms, and agricultrual shows, where they can go and see the cute little baby animals, and they don't need to know why they are being born and bred.
Then mum will take them to get a chesseburger and they innocently go on with life.
In my family nothing was wasted, meat was cooked, bones were boiled up to make soup, then given to the dogs to eat. Vegetables come from the garden, and the scraps were given to the chickens.
I remember going down to the vegetable paddock with my pop, and he would pick a carrot out of the ground, wash it in the dam water and give it to me to eat or pull off an cob of corn, clean it up and it would be a nice fresh snack.
We would pick peas, beans, potatoes, corn & carrots out of the garden and take up to the house for nan to cook.
One of my pops' had a farm and a lot of cows to milk, he would milk them in the morning and at night. The milkng machines would be attached to the cows and the milk would go through the machines and into a big cooling vat.
Twice a day the man from the dairy would come in his big truck and pump the milk from the vat into the tanker and transport it to the dairy to be processed and put into cartons, or make cheese or to be used however they decide to use it.
Sometimes, pop would bypass the vat and pour a bucket of milk to be used at the house.
My other pop had a house cow, he did not have a farm, but did live on a small property.
Everyday pop would go out with his bucket and stool and hand milk the cow for milk for the day.
We never had a shortage of milk.
Every afternoon we would go out to the chook shed and collect the eggs. Chickens are funny creatures, you build them their own shed, with private little laying boxes, but if you let them out for the day, they will find a spot in, say, the haystack and lay their eggs there. It was like an easter egg hunt looking for the fresh eggs that weren't in the chicken shed.
I remember I would go with my pop and a trailer load of calves, to a place where a man would weigh the calves and pay my pop some money. Then we would go home.
I knew at a young age that these calves were being sold to used as meat.
I would watch in awe, when a sheep was caught and slaughtered to chop up for the freezer. The farm dogs would also love it.
I used to help my nan, chase, kill and pluck the chickens to be cooked. Seriously watching a chicken running around with it's head cut off is a funny sight to see.
It all sounds a bit gruesome, but this is life, it was not traumatising, it did not turn me into a a serial killer. Nor did it make me sick and want to become a vegetarian.
I grew up knowing that milk come from cows, these cows were dairy cattle and were not used for eating.
Beef cattle were different, they were stockier and only produced milk to feed their young. They are bred to be eaten.
I could tell the difference by their colour and build, oh and also the massive udder of so full of milk that it made it hard for some of the poor cows to walk.
As I said earlier, almost every part of the animal was used. Which brings me to the offal.
I was never a fan of offal, to this day I am sure the word Offal is Latin for Awful, but some people love their offal.
Lambs Fry, Kidneys, Sheeps Brains, Tongue, Tripe, shall we go one, you all know what I mean.
Nowadays Celebrity Chefs will whip something up with, give it an exotic name, charge a fortune for the "gourmet" delight made of what was once the cheapest "meat" from the animal.
In some cultures they will eat eyeballs, testicles and the such, they are used for everything from delicacies or medical remedies.
I think of all the adventures had as a young child, which inadvertadley was related to food. Not only was it life on the farm.
My friends and I would wander off on a Sunday afternoon, with our buckets and pocket knives.
No we weren't the local gang looking for some trouble, we were off to the paddocks in our area to go mushrooming.
We would walk through the paddocks looking for the biggest or the most mushrooms we could find.
We would come home when our buckets were full.
I never liked mushrooms at the time, pity because I love them now, and we used to get heaps of them.
I think people should educate their children better to understand life on the land. Don't keep them sheltered from things that are the truth.
Take them on a holiday to a real working farm, not just a petting zoo, let them know that this chop they are eating comes from baa baa sheep.
They will not be traumatised from it if you tell them the truth.
Let them pick a carrot from a garden and wash it under the garden tap and eat.
Kids seem to have more illnessness and allergies nowadays than ever before, surely this would be because we live in such a sterile cotton wool world.
We got dirty, ran under the sprinkler, made mud pies, swam in farm dams, ate from the garden and very rarely got sick.
There is a saying that comes up when someone is sick, it goes "maybe you didn't eat enough dirt when you were growing up"
I think that says it all.
BB
Having spent a lot of my childhood holidays on my grandparents farm, a lot of my food memories stem from then.
Fresh meat and chicken, were always on the menu, and when I say fresh, I really mean fresh.
You hear the advertisements from Woolworths the "Fresh Food People," or fresh from the paddock to the table.
Our food really was from the paddock to the table.
We live in a society where people, like to think that milk comes from cartons, meat, chicken fruit and veges come from the supermarket.
We don't want to think of where our food actually comes from, or how it gets on the supermarket shelves, we just want to eat it.
If we think about it or even talk about it, god forbid what will happen to our children.
They need to be sheltered from such horrendous activities, as killing our animals to feed our families.
They have petting farms, and agricultrual shows, where they can go and see the cute little baby animals, and they don't need to know why they are being born and bred.
Then mum will take them to get a chesseburger and they innocently go on with life.
In my family nothing was wasted, meat was cooked, bones were boiled up to make soup, then given to the dogs to eat. Vegetables come from the garden, and the scraps were given to the chickens.
I remember going down to the vegetable paddock with my pop, and he would pick a carrot out of the ground, wash it in the dam water and give it to me to eat or pull off an cob of corn, clean it up and it would be a nice fresh snack.
We would pick peas, beans, potatoes, corn & carrots out of the garden and take up to the house for nan to cook.
One of my pops' had a farm and a lot of cows to milk, he would milk them in the morning and at night. The milkng machines would be attached to the cows and the milk would go through the machines and into a big cooling vat.
Twice a day the man from the dairy would come in his big truck and pump the milk from the vat into the tanker and transport it to the dairy to be processed and put into cartons, or make cheese or to be used however they decide to use it.
Sometimes, pop would bypass the vat and pour a bucket of milk to be used at the house.
My other pop had a house cow, he did not have a farm, but did live on a small property.
Everyday pop would go out with his bucket and stool and hand milk the cow for milk for the day.
We never had a shortage of milk.
Every afternoon we would go out to the chook shed and collect the eggs. Chickens are funny creatures, you build them their own shed, with private little laying boxes, but if you let them out for the day, they will find a spot in, say, the haystack and lay their eggs there. It was like an easter egg hunt looking for the fresh eggs that weren't in the chicken shed.
I remember I would go with my pop and a trailer load of calves, to a place where a man would weigh the calves and pay my pop some money. Then we would go home.
I knew at a young age that these calves were being sold to used as meat.
I would watch in awe, when a sheep was caught and slaughtered to chop up for the freezer. The farm dogs would also love it.
I used to help my nan, chase, kill and pluck the chickens to be cooked. Seriously watching a chicken running around with it's head cut off is a funny sight to see.
It all sounds a bit gruesome, but this is life, it was not traumatising, it did not turn me into a a serial killer. Nor did it make me sick and want to become a vegetarian.
I grew up knowing that milk come from cows, these cows were dairy cattle and were not used for eating.
Beef cattle were different, they were stockier and only produced milk to feed their young. They are bred to be eaten.
I could tell the difference by their colour and build, oh and also the massive udder of so full of milk that it made it hard for some of the poor cows to walk.
As I said earlier, almost every part of the animal was used. Which brings me to the offal.
I was never a fan of offal, to this day I am sure the word Offal is Latin for Awful, but some people love their offal.
Lambs Fry, Kidneys, Sheeps Brains, Tongue, Tripe, shall we go one, you all know what I mean.
Nowadays Celebrity Chefs will whip something up with, give it an exotic name, charge a fortune for the "gourmet" delight made of what was once the cheapest "meat" from the animal.
In some cultures they will eat eyeballs, testicles and the such, they are used for everything from delicacies or medical remedies.
I think of all the adventures had as a young child, which inadvertadley was related to food. Not only was it life on the farm.
My friends and I would wander off on a Sunday afternoon, with our buckets and pocket knives.
No we weren't the local gang looking for some trouble, we were off to the paddocks in our area to go mushrooming.
We would walk through the paddocks looking for the biggest or the most mushrooms we could find.
We would come home when our buckets were full.
I never liked mushrooms at the time, pity because I love them now, and we used to get heaps of them.
I think people should educate their children better to understand life on the land. Don't keep them sheltered from things that are the truth.
Take them on a holiday to a real working farm, not just a petting zoo, let them know that this chop they are eating comes from baa baa sheep.
They will not be traumatised from it if you tell them the truth.
Let them pick a carrot from a garden and wash it under the garden tap and eat.
Kids seem to have more illnessness and allergies nowadays than ever before, surely this would be because we live in such a sterile cotton wool world.
We got dirty, ran under the sprinkler, made mud pies, swam in farm dams, ate from the garden and very rarely got sick.
There is a saying that comes up when someone is sick, it goes "maybe you didn't eat enough dirt when you were growing up"
I think that says it all.
BB
Friday, 2 March 2012
Cookery the Australian Way
My very first cook book from memory had a title something like "My Learn to Cook Book" and was a big book with big colourful pictures and print. It had recipes for hamburgers and face pizzas. I don't think I knew what a pizza was in those days, it sounded a bit exotic. I would have been about 9, maybe younger.
I don't know what ever happened to that book.
The first 'real' cook book I got was in High School and it was called "Cookery the Australian Way".
"Cookery the Australian Way" was first published in 1966 by the Trustees of the Home Economics Teacher's Group and reprinted eleven times until the Second Edition was published in 1974. My copy was the 1977 reprint.
It has been re printed and re published many times over the years and is still available today.
"Cookery the Australian Way" was a staple for every kid taking high school cooking class, and a book I still turn to this very day.
I remember each week we would rock up to cookery class with our ice-cream container and our copy of "Cookery the Australian Way" ready to make whatever was on the timetable for that day.
We would make a variety of dishes like Foundation Biscuit Recipe or Foundation Butter Cake.
It seems there was a "Foundation" recipe for just about everything from Broth, Brown Stew and Casserole, to Scones, Steamed Custard and White Bread.
Each Foundation recipe also has a list of Variations to add to enjoy something different.
I still think the Foundation Butter Cake with the Banana variation is the best Banana Cake recipe I own.
"Cookery the Australian Way"is chock full of great recipes, which may seem very basic by todays standards, but the recipes are designed for schoolkids learning to cook.
I don't know what ever happened to that book.
The first 'real' cook book I got was in High School and it was called "Cookery the Australian Way".
"Cookery the Australian Way" was first published in 1966 by the Trustees of the Home Economics Teacher's Group and reprinted eleven times until the Second Edition was published in 1974. My copy was the 1977 reprint.
It has been re printed and re published many times over the years and is still available today.
"Cookery the Australian Way" was a staple for every kid taking high school cooking class, and a book I still turn to this very day.
I remember each week we would rock up to cookery class with our ice-cream container and our copy of "Cookery the Australian Way" ready to make whatever was on the timetable for that day.
We would make a variety of dishes like Foundation Biscuit Recipe or Foundation Butter Cake.
It seems there was a "Foundation" recipe for just about everything from Broth, Brown Stew and Casserole, to Scones, Steamed Custard and White Bread.
Each Foundation recipe also has a list of Variations to add to enjoy something different.
I still think the Foundation Butter Cake with the Banana variation is the best Banana Cake recipe I own.
"Cookery the Australian Way"is chock full of great recipes, which may seem very basic by todays standards, but the recipes are designed for schoolkids learning to cook.
"Cookery the Australian Way" circa 1977
Another of my first cook books, I got a few years later. This was the PWMU Cookery Book.
The PWMU Cookery Book was a publication from The "Presbyterian Women's Missionary Union" Uniting Church Fellowship.
It was first printed in 1904 and was reprinted twenty one times, until it was re-issued in a revised and completely reset metric edition in 1973. It was reprinted four times until I got my copy which was copyright 1983.
This was a book I remember growing up with, my nana had her version, my mum had her version, so it was inevitable that I would have mine.
Each of our books had some of the same recipes, but also some different ones added over the years of revision.
I am not one hundred percent sure, but I think it still might be available today.
The PWMU book has a variety of recipes from Soups, Main Dishes and Desserts, not unlike "Cookery the Australian Way".
There is even a section called "Help for Beginners" and it has paragraphs about meal planning, temperatures, measurements and simple recipes like Porridge, Milk Rice and how to cook an egg 4 different ways.
There is even a section called "Help for Beginners" and it has paragraphs about meal planning, temperatures, measurements and simple recipes like Porridge, Milk Rice and how to cook an egg 4 different ways.
PWMU Cookery Book circa 1983
The PWMU Cookery Book and "Cookery the Australian Way" have a lot of basic recipes, which I have used over the years, and both cookbooks have served me very well.
You can tell by the pictures the amount of use they have had, they have recipes written inside their covers and blank pages, there are recipe sheets stuffed inside of them. They have been spilt on and wiped over more times than I can remember, but I can honestly say that of all the cook books I own, and I have quite a few, these two oldies are definately my favourites.
BB
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