Play dough?!

I finally finished Poppy's quilt but as they are burning off the whole of the military range at the back of our house, I can't get it outside for photos because of the smoke.


Just wanted to share an easy playdough recipe I stole from my friend Cassie ;) :

3 Cups Plain Flour
3 Tbl Oil
6 tspn Cream of Tartar
3 Cups Water

Mix all the ingredients in a microwave bowl, cover and cook for 7 minutes on high, stirring half way through. Once cool, knead to smooth consistency.

It makes really soft 'playdoh' consistency playdough! It's really lovely to play with and an easy way to do it. Also having no salt, it works out even cheaper to make.

ANZAC Day March

We had a great morning at the march. We saw the evidence of so many more of our returned soliders passing away and their family members carrying on the tradition. Lots of music and jeeps, not to mention an F1-11 fly over to keep the kids excited. And hey, how often do you get to sit on the kerb of a usually hectic city street and see history pass by your eyes?

I thought I'd share with you my usually well-kept secret recipe for ANZAC biscuits:

1 cup Plain Flour
1 cup Rolled Oats
1 cup Desicated Coconut
2/3 cup Brown Sugar
125gm Butter
1/4 cup Golden Syrup
1/2 tspn Bi-carb Soda
1 Tbl Boiling Water

Preheat oven to 180ºC, Sift flour into bowl and add rest of dry ingredients; mix.
Melt butter and golden syrup in saucepan on Medium heat.
When melted, add bi-carb to water and mix, add to butter mixture (It will start to froth up immediately)
Add wet ingredients to dry mix, mix with a wooden spoon.
Roll desertspoons full of mix into balls, place on lined tray, flatten slightly.
Cook for approximately 10 minutes, until just browning on edges, longer if you like a crunchy biscuit).
Cool on trays - makes approximately 26.









A bit of Sepia fun! Could of been the first ANZAC day march!

You HAVE to try these!

White Chocolate Chip, Cranberry, Oatmeal Biscuits - from Julesong at RecipeZaar

Ingredients

3/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup butter, softened - or 125gms

1 large egg

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 1/2 cups quick-cooking oat (not instant)

3/4 cup dried cranberries

3/4 cup ounces white chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 190ºC.
2. In a large bowl using an electric mixer combine the sugar, brown sugar and butter; mix well to cream together.
3. Add in egg and vanilla extract and mix until combined.
4. Add the cinnamon, baking soda, salt and flour and mix well.
5. Fold in the oatmeal, dried cranberries and white chocolate chips- making sure that all ingredients are uniformly distributed.
6. Roll dough into 1-inch balls and place 3 inches apart onto a greased cookie sheet and bake at 375° for 10-12 minutes, just until the edges are lightly golden.
7. Remove from oven and let cool for 2-3 minutes on the cookie sheet, then transfer cookies to cooling rack.

I took them out at 10 minutes - they looked totally underdone but upon sitting on their pretty silicon sheet covered tray for a few minutes - they are the PERFECT combination of crispy on the edges and chewy texture in the middle. Truly, promise me you will whip these up, you won't regret it! Even though I'm not the biggest cinnamon fan, I stayed true to the recipe and it is divine. Really, my bum is growing just thinking about them. I might have to try another one, just to make sure they're not poisonous....

Don't you just love the World's biggest recipe book - the www? Have you got any Net recipes that you've gleaned in your travels?

Hark to Recipes of Old

Photo Courtesy of Taste

I was in the mood for comfort food last night so I decided a meal of Corned Silverside was in order. I remember it as a bland tasteless meal smothered in floury white sauce when I was a child but I have found a new recipe and tips from Judie my legendary MIL. It's no longer a meat destined for a week of use on sandwiches with pickles, it's a delicious healthy tempter.

Corned Silverside

1.5 - 2kg Silverside
1 Onion
1 Stick of Celery chopped
2 Carrots peeled and chopped
6 Cloves
2 Bay leaves
1 Tbl Vinegar
2 Tbl Brown Sugar
Water

Place silverside in pot, cover with cold water and bring to the boil. Once boiling, empty water and put meat to one side.

Cut vegetables, peel Onion, stud with cloves. Place vegetables in the pot, along with bay leaves, vinegar and brown sugar. Place silverside back into the pot and barely cover with water.

Bring to the boil then gently simmer with the lid slightly ajar for approximately 40 minutes per 500gms. When a knife inserted slides out easily, remove from water and double wrap in foil to rest for approximately half an hour. I think cooking it in the slow cooker would yield excellent results also.

Keep some of the water aside to place on to moisten the meat upon serving.

I like to serve my silverside sliced as thinly as possible, with steamed carrots, french beans, buttered chat potatoes and some cauliflower cheese if I want to make a real effort. I find an almost 2kg piece is enough for myself, DH & 3 kids' dinners and a round of sandwiches the next day.

I hope to make an actual tutorial with as you go pictures soon, but for a recipe slightly more exciting than Silverside!

Pumpkin and Lentil Soup

The kids and I were looking for something fun to so this morning and I wasn't in the mood for sweet.

We (when I say we, I mean I) looked in the fridge and came to the conclusion that something vegetable based would be a good idea. I pored through my Jamie at Home book and used his Superb squash soup recipe with my own additions:

Oil
1 Onion, chopped
2 sticks of Celery, chopped
2 Carrots, peeled and chopped
2 cloves of Garlic, peeled and chopped
2kg (roughly) of Pumpkin (I used Kent but Butternut would be preferable)
2 Ltrs of Chicken Stock
Salt & Pepper
Slurp of Honey
1 Cup of Soup Mix

Now, if you're anything like me & decide what to cook on a spur of the moment thing, you'll end up doing the quick method of preparing the soup mix. Rinse, bung it in a saucepan, top with water and simmer for an hour and a bit, skimming the gooby bits off the top, adding water if needed.

In a warm pan, add oil, then onion, celery, carrott, garlic, any herbs you desire and salt and pepper. Cook gently for around 10 minutes or until they are softened.

Add pumpkin and chicken stock - simmer for around 45 minutes or until the pumpkin starts to break down. Give it a whizz with your stick blender, or however you puree, or if you want to be really rustic, leave it in bits and pieces.

Add honey to taste if it needs a slight sweetner (I used approximately a dessert spoon). I assume using Butternut would exclude the need for this step. Drain and rinse your soup mix then add to soup. Delish. Guaranteed to even have grumpy children slurping away.

Now, I didn't take a photo as I assume we all know what Pumpkin Soup looks like, yeah? That and I was too lazy. I have both the little ones with a virus, Poppy with tonsilitis and Cameron with a chest infection so it's happy campers at this end! I think this soup is not only tasty but a nice immune boost too.

Meal Plan

Old Homestead near Rushworth 2006, pic taken by Steven

After the excitement of the long weekend - it's back to the daily grind on the ranch.

Having just completed our first full fortnight of Meal Planning, I thought I would share with you. My plan looked like this (everything is made from scratch):

Pizza
Chicken, Noodles Stir-fry
Lamb Roast
Spinach & Ricotta Cannelloni
BBQ Ribs
"Popcorn" (store bought 100% chicken mini nuggets from Aldi) chicken wraps
Chicken Enchiladas
BBQ Salmon
Tuna and Sweet Potato Croquets
Bacon Quiche
Fried Rice with Spring Rolls and Dumplings
Lasagne
Chicken Schnitzels

All were with either veg or salad and other sides. It worked really well to do it this way as I could buy exact quantities of ingredients and vary the meat/chicken/fish quantities. It also stopped me from staring at the frozen meat and drawing a blank of what to cook.

I have so many recipes that I use that it would take me all month to write them here but I will try to blog one recipe a week maybe?

I love to cook so although my menu may look labour intensive ie: making schnitzel, shortcrust pastry, dumplings, spring rolls from scratch, it would be easy to buy ready-made. I make bulk lots of pizza dough, dumplings, spring rolls etc and stock my freezer so I have 'take away' food ready to go. I realise it may not be the healthiest, low fat meal plan in the World but I believe in having yummy home-cooked food so you don't buy it elsewhere!

I would love to see anyone else's meal plans and recipes they love, I find a lot of my meal inspiration on the Internet. The best sweet I've ever made came from here - Oh good lord, they are the BEST. I took a pan of them to my friends' one afternoon and they thought we'd bought them. I think I will abstain from making them this fortnight as I don't think my belt would stand the strain. It's under enough pressure from the Easter chocolate!

Back later with my Cleaning task sheet.....