Cheering for Churros

Ok... so I know it's been a while since the last blog, I'm sorry!  I'm sure those of you with kids know what it's like, some weeks just get away from you and before you know it, it's a month later and the season is finally changing... which is almost what's happening here.  Autumn is desperately trying to arrive but Summer is clinging on... finger by finger being peeled away... hopefully by Easter Autumn can finally arrive in full force, bring on the rain, storms & changing leaves... ahhh.

So in the meantime, we've been busy making candles and baking... our favourite thing on a Friday night now is to sit down with a super yum treat & watch my corny home reno shows :)  So two Fridays ago we made churros!  For those of you who have never heard of churros, they're basically a Spanish doughnut, but it's just a long stick of sweet dough that's deep fried... mmmmm.  For those of you who have heard of them, thanks to San Churros (you totally have to go next time you're near one if you've never tried them before http://www.sanchurro.com/ ) ... yes, those of you who have been to San Churro, I have to say, ours were almost the same, we were just missing the melted chocolate to dip them in, which would definitely make them perfect.

Anyway, here's a pic of how ours turned out & our recipe below

 

 Churros

125g chopped butter
1 cup water
1 cup plain flour (sifted)
3 eggs (we'd use 2 next time, it was a little too eggy for us)
Vegetable oil to deep fry
1/3 cup caster sugar
1 tsp cinnamon (or more if you wish)

Place butter and water in a saucepan over low heat until butter is melted & water just comes to the boil.  Add flour and stir until mix just comes away from side of the pan.
Place mix into a mixing bowl.  Allow to cool for a few minutes.  Add eggs, one at a time, beating well with an electric beater in between each egg, until mix is smooth.
Place dough into piping bag with a star nozzle (1cm is big enough).
Heat enough oil to reach a depth of 4-5cm (do not let oil go more than halfway up the side of the pan, if it does, you need a deeper pan).  Oil is hot enough when a piece of bread browns in 15 seconds.
Pipe 10cm lengths of dough into the oil, use a knife to slice off each length.  We did a test run of just one at a time to determine the exact cooking time.  Some recipes called for a minute each side, ours ended up being about 2.5mins each side (I'm guessing our oil wasn't hot enough or cooled down too quickly when we added the churros to fry).
Remove from oil once cooked and place into a dish with the sugar & cinnamon mix, toss until well coated & serve.
If you don't want to do the cinnamon sugar, you can just let them drain a little on paper towel and make a little chocolate ganache to keep in a mini fondue pot... also awesome!

If you make them let me know how they worked out.  Next blog will have a rolled spinach omelette recipe (thanks to Martha Stewart!)... that was yummo too!

Super Brave!

Wow... today my son had his 4 yr needles, yes, six months late, oops!  But he was an absolute champion.  I was very very impressed, not a tear, although a little whimper escaped when he realised there was a second needle coming... but so very strong, such a little man already!  He was also pretty chuffed with his two jellybeans at the end, the nurse loved him.  He also asked the Dr if he could bake her a cake for her birthday lol, she said "it's in October, and that would be lovely".. so does that mean we actually have to bake her a cake?

So I haven't posted a recipe for about a week now!  Oops!  Been pretty busy trying to paint our house... on the road to getting it finished, finally.  We have set a goal to have the house completed by the end of this year.  All we really have to do is paint, tile the laundry floor and landscape the current sandpit down the laundry side of the house... it's just money that stops it all from happening, but we have faith that it will be completed!  Yay!

So yes, a recipe... I was weighing up the risk of telling you what is on the menu tonight, it's something I've made only once before, and back then I actually had beautiful ingredients, and if tonight's doesn't work out, what will I post?  Especially after I've told you!  Well I'm taking that risk :)  On tonight's menu is Stuffed Field Mushrooms.  I have two good sized mushies, but due to budget constraints, the fillings will be rather interesting... I have 3 leftover chipolata sausages that will be diced, some onion, capsicum, courgette (the tiniest baby zucchini ever), garlic, breadcrumbs and grated cheese (last time I used goats cheese which was amazing, but not in my budget this week)... so now that I've told you, I have to make it and post it with the verdict... and hey, if it doesn't work out, I'll still be honest... and I won't share the recipe to make sure no one else makes the same mistake!

On a side note, I'm selling my candles now.  I have a little facebook page set up, and here it is...
http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Homestead/194209650600028
If you like what you see, and are interested in purchasing, please let me know.  I'm not quite 100% sure of postage costs yet, but if you are within the Perth metro area I'll deliver for a $5 fee for orders under $30, if over $30 you get free delivery.  Out of Perth, we can sort something out, it just might take a little longer to get it to you safely.  At the moment I only accept direct deposit, but have a paypal account and will sort it out so I can receive payments too.

Ok, back to painting I go...

Soup for the soul... and the tummy!

Chicken Noodle Soup... three little words that make you feel so many emotions.  I have always wanted to have the ideal Chicken Noodle Soup.  Reading my books as a child, the characters would always have a bowl of it when they were unwell, and I dreamed of enjoying it myself... then when I finally experienced my first taste I was so bitterly disappointed.  It was greasy and gooey, and I couldn't even finish the bowl!  Thus I was turned off chicken noodle soup for years.

One day last winter, I was searching for a Martha Stewart tomato soup recipe that I had seen her make on her show.  While I was perusing the website, I came across the 'Easy Chicken Noodle Soup" recipe... my heart fluttered... could it really be this easy?  Could something so easy taste good?  So I did it, I bought the ingredients, made it, and oh wow, it was awesome!  I was so happy!  I had finally found the soup that lived up to my ideal :)  I've refined it a little now, added my own touch here & there, but really, thanks goes to Martha for this one!  This is the soup I take to friends when they're unwell, or even just as a "I love you & want to bless you" meal... and it is a meal indeed.

I am making it for dinner tonight, this recipe is huge.  It makes about 5L of soup.  That's why I usually share it with people.  We have it for dinner, then the next night for leftovers, and freeze some too.  Here's my recipe, and pics from the last one I made.

Super Easy Chicken Noodle Soup

4L chicken stock (I usually get 2L Campbell's Salt reduced chicken stock, and make up 2L from Massel chicken style stock powder)
1 BBQ chicken, skin removed & shredded (if it's a large one, you could save the drumsticks & wings for a salad the next night)
2 carrots, sliced in 5mm rounds
3 spring onions, sliced into batons
2Tbs dill (I use the Gourmet Garden tubes of dill, it lasts much longer than a fresh bunch - unless you have your own)
250g pasta (mostly I use angel hair pasta, broken into 3cm sticks, sometimes I use alphabet pasta or stellini-tiny stars)
white pepper to taste

1. In large stock pot, bring 4L chicken stock to boil. 
2. In another pot, boil water & cook pasta (this pic is of angel hair broken up) until just underdone (2 mins less than time suggested).  Drain & rinse with cold water (to prevent sticking)

3. When chicken stock has reached boiling, add in carrots and reduce to gentle boil for 3 mins, add spring onions.  Gently boil for 2 mins.

 4. Add chicken, pasta, dill and pepper to taste (only add salt if really necessary), heat until chicken is piping hot.

 5. Serve with crusty bread.  Done! 

How easy is that!?  I sometimes mix it up, put in celery or mushrooms, sometimes frozen corn kernels, it depends on what needs to get used up, but this simple recipe is definitely my fave.  If you make it, let me know how it goes!

Not only do you get the benefit of a fabulously thrifty meal, but you also get the benefit of feeling like you're nurturing your body, your family's bodies and those around you... and not only that, but also it warms the spirit doesn't it?  Giving of your time and thought, love and effort, truly brings more joy than if you're just picking up a pizza on the way home for the family.  Soup for the soul.

Nothing beats home made...

What amazing weather we are having here right now, I love summer!  I do really enjoy these 36C days (unless it's really humid & my evap aircon doesn't work too well)... today I have been spring cleaning (or summer cleaning I guess)... and it feels so good to be getting my room sorted, junk removed, freshly vacuumed and inspired to actually finish decorating - if you don't know, we built this house just over two years ago, and still haven't finished it off completely lol.  Our bedroom has been one of the three most neglected rooms in the house, until now!  I'm even inspired to paint on that canvas I found sitting next to my bookshelf :)  I love it.  Now all I need is the money to finish decorating... ah the dreams...

Back to reality, and being a school week I have been in the kitchen baking some goodies for the boys to pack in their lunchboxes.  Mr R found this recipe in a Christmas book he borrowed from the school library, they're called Christmas Choc Chip Cookies, although they don't seem to be overly "Christmasy".  Mr F and I baked a batch on Monday, we made 28 cookies, and by Tuesday morning there was none left!  So on Tuesday I baked another lot (while Little D was napping & both boys at school) and made a batch of 32... and today, Wednesday afternoon, there are none left... although I did take 12 to the church staff meeting yesterday... so they are delicious!  So good that I had to share the recipe with you.  So easy too!

Christmas Choc Chip Cookies
115g butter (at room temperature)
115g caster sugar
170g self raising flour
1 Tbs golden syrup (I didn't have any so I used treacle)
1 Tbs milk
1 tsp bi-carb soda
50g choc chips

1. Heat oven to 165C.  Prepare two baking trays (I just use baking paper, no greasing/flouring).
2. In mixing bowl, cream butter & sugar.  Sift in flour. Combine.
3. In saucepan, heat milk & syrup until warm.  Add bi-carb and stir (this will foam up a little).  Add to mixing bowl with other ingredients.  Combine all with wooden spoon.
4. Add choc chips, stir through with metal spoon (this helps distribute the choc chips evenly).
5. Roll spoonfuls of mix into balls and place on trays 5cm apart.  Squash lightly with a floured fork (I just used my finger tips).
6. Bake in oven 10-15mins or until golden brown.  Let cool on tray for 3 mins, then move to wire cooling rack to cool completely.  EAT!

They really are delicious, and the kids loved them.  I don't normally make food with chocolate for the kids to take to school, I usually use dried or fresh fruits, oats, pepitas etc, but this was a very exciting exception for them :)  Be careful, my first batch crumbled after one day (ie those few left for morning tea on Tuesday fell apart).  But the second batch made on Tuesday held together perfectly today... not sure why, perhaps the storage?  I used a zip lock bag on Monday night, but a take-away container last night... hmm

Let me know if you enjoy them!

Day 10! Time for the last recipe and the results! Did I pass the challenge??

Wow, so the final day has come... I must admit, it has been an enjoyable challenge.  Big M has been so impressed with the meals that he wants us to keep the food allowance this tight so we can free up some extra cash for other spending... and seeing as I would love to actually have plants in the garden bed out the back, some paving for the kids to ride their bikes on, to paint the house and to have curtains, skirting, and a new lounge suite... I'm rather happy to comply :)  Although it will be nice to not stress about it sometime, and splurge a little on something a little extra special.  So once a week I will continue to post a great family friendly recipe, if you have any recipes that are a favourite in your household, email me & I'll trial it, and post the results.

But I'm sure you're all hanging out to see if I really managed to complete the challenge at hand.  Now, don't forget I did have a lot of staples in my pantry & fridge, pasta, rice, potatoes, onions, milk, eggs, so I was technically only needing to keep my budget of spending to $60, not actually $60 total for all supplies... aww I hear you say, I thought she wasn't going to magically spend $6 a meal for the 10 days! Nope, sorry, and to make you wait even longer, I need to share with you Day 10's dinner, which was a Sour Cream Quiche (recipe from 4 Ingredients).

Day 10 - Sour Cream Quiche
4 eggs - $2.00
400ml sour cream (I used 200ml light sour cream & 200ml garlic & parsley sour cream)- $3.23
1 sheet puff pastry - $0.90
200g diced bacon - $1.40
2 spring onions, sliced finely - $0.70
1 handful cheese - $0.75
Salad leaves - $1.45
Total Cost: $10.43
Negligible items:
Spray oil
1 Tbs rice bran oil
Salt & pepper to taste

1. Heat oven to 180C.  Spray quiche dish with oil (I use a pyrex dish, circular & fluted so I can see if the pastry is cooked on the bottom). Semi defrost a sheet of puff pastry.
2. Heat a little oil in a fry pan, cook bacon and spring onion til bacon is crunchy & onions are soft, set aside.
3. In bowl, combine eggs, sour creams, salt & pepper.
4. Lay pastry in dish, pour on bacon & onion mix, spread evenly over pastry, sprinkle grated cheese over the top.  Pour over egg & sour cream mix.  Place in oven and cook for 30mins.  If your pastry starts getting too brown, cover loosely with alfoil until the rest of the quiche is cooked.  Don't be fooled, you may think it looks ok at 20mins, but you want your pastry to cook on the bottom!  (which is why I use pyrex).
5. Remove from oven, let sit for 5mins so it can settle.  Slice & serve with salad greens.

And it was yum!  So good!  I usually tend to make very eggy quiches that don't hold very well, but because of the sour cream, this one held up beautifully.  Now my pyrex dish (the one I also used for the tuna mornay) is quite large in diametre, so the quiche is not very deep, should you want that really high quiche, use a 20cm diametre dish.  My quiche lasted two nights, as Big M was away the first night, we only ate half of the quiche, so the pic you are seeing is the second night's serving after being reheated in the microwave & served with parmesan ciabatta and a salad with orange & olives (this would be day 11 so I haven't included the extras in my budget).

Ok... I will finally give you the results of my spending for the past 10 days... purchasing meat, the occasional core ingredient (sour cream, apricot nectar etc) as well as fresh salad in the last few days (as I had some in the fridge for the earlier days)... the grand total spent is.... drum roll please...

$56.30

Woo hoo!  I did it!  I cannot believe it, I was getting worried when I spent so much on the meat in the first few days, but then as the time went on, making meals that weren't so "meaty" and more "carby" it made the difference to the budget, hopefully not a big difference to my waistline!  So there you have it, yes it can be done... with a little creativity, and some good suggestions from friends, dinner can be cheap, well balanced & enjoyable (albeit a little greasy for a few of them, oops!).

Now what's the next challenge???

ooh catch up time! Days 8 & 9 of the $60 challenge...

Oops!  Ok, so I haven't blogged since Monday, and it's now Thursday... um... well Big M has been in Sydney since Sunday lunchtime, and running around after the three kidlets have left my spare time rather scarce... so any spare moments have been spent napping :) So today I give you the recipe for Tuna Mornay, and also the recipe for my Zucchini Fritters... yummo!  Here we go!

Day 7 - Tuna Mornay (Day 8 too as we had leftovers)
1 x 425g tin Tuna in brine - $4.89
250g short pasta - $1.60
1 brown onion, finely diced - $0.80
400ml milk - $0.80
2 handfuls grated cheese - $1.50
Total cost: $8.79
Negligible items:
2 Tbs butter
1 tsp minced garlic
2 Tbs flour
2 Tbs breadcrumbs
Salt & pepper

1.  Set oven to 180 C.  Boil water & prepare to cook pasta as per instructions.  Drain tin of tuna, reserve liquid to use in white sauce (if you can only find tuna in springwater or oil, don't reserve this, use extra milk in sauce instead).
2.  In saucepan, melt butter, add onion and garlic, saute until onion softens (do this over a medium heat, too high and the onion will brown).  Add flour and stir to make into a roux, stir over heat for a minute to allow flour to cook out.  Pour in reserved liquid from tuna and whisk, add milk, a little at a time, whisking until smooth.  Note, 400ml is an estimate, your sauce needs to be the consistency of a nice thick custard, too little milk & it will be too thick, too much milk & you'll have a runny mornay.
3. Once sauce starts to bubble, continue stirring, and let it bubble for one minute, this ensures you don't get that raw floury taste.  Turn off heat.  Add in tuna, salt & pepper (to taste).  If you used the brine in your white sauce, you won't need much salt (if any at all).
4.  Combine with drained pasta.  Pour into baking dish, top with grated cheese & breadcrumbs.  Put in oven until brown & bubbling.  Remove, cool for 5 mins, and serve!

I usually add in a handful of frozen corn kernels and some diced tomatoes at the same time as the tuna (end of Step 3), but I didn't have any spare in the fridge or freezer this week.  Hence it's not as colourful as usual.  Also it's nice to serve this with some crispy lettuce leaves & sliced avocado if you have some handy.

Day 9 - Party Pies, potato mash & zucchini fritters
Yum!  I love party pies, a good meat pie, but how hard is it to find a good one?  One without those grissly bits, one without random pieces that make you gag... gross!  I was recommended the Woolworths brand party pies, and I have to say, they lived up to their reputation.  I'm very happy with the quality.  They're in the fridge section, next to the cakes & custard tarts (oh yum, custard tarts!)... so I baked the party pies as per the instructions, made potato mash as per my liking (and the kids), and made my yummy zucchini fritters, recipe which is about to come your way!
1 pack Woolworths Bakehouse Party Pies - $4.49
5 (4 for mash, 1 grated for fritters) potatoes - $2.00
1 zucchini, grated - $1.50
1 brown onion, grated - $0.80
1 egg - $0.50
Total cost:  $9.29
Negligible items:
Salt & pepper
Oil
1 Tbs flour
Splash of milk (for mash)
1 tsp butter (for mash)

Zucchini Fritters
1.  Grate 1 potato, 1 zucchini, 1 brown onion.  Squeeze all the excess liquid out possible.  Stir in flour, salt, pepper & egg.
2.  Heat oil in fry pan (about 1-2Tbs).  Add blobs of the zucchini mix to pan, flatten out a little.  Turn when golden, remove when both sides are golden brown & drain on paper towel.

3.  Serve!

These are also really yummy with poached eggs & slices of ham as a meal... also served with a garlic aoili!  I just had mine with ketchup (seeing as I have ketchup with pies anyway).

Ok, no time to babble on at the end of this post today, I have to run out to collect the kids from school.  Day 10 is a Sour Cream Quiche!!!  Watch this space tomorrow for the pics!

Seven down, three to go!

Here is the meal plan from Days 5, 6 & 7... I've been a little busy over the weekend, a bit full on, but that's what most of our weekends are like anyway.  I can't remember the last time we chilled out for the whole two days... hmm.. sounds like a holiday is needed!

So, for those interested, Day 5 I made my Dad's yummy Salmon Patties.  If you don't like salmon, just use tuna instead (I'm not a huge fan of the bones in the salmon tins, but I remove the big ones, and mash up the little ones so you don't notice them - they are perfectly safe to eat, apparently lol).  I served it all up with oven chips & corn cobbettes and cherry tomatoes.  Once it was on the plate I realised I really needed to add something green, but honestly I was too tired to worry :)  The kids were happy with what they received, in fact Mr R ate 4 patties!

Here is the Secret Recipe :)

Day 5 - Salmon Patties
400g canned pink salmon - $4.80
400g potatoes - $1.50
1 red onion, finely diced - $0.90
1 egg - $0.50
5 frozen corn cobbettes - $1.20
1/2 bag frozen chips - $0.50
Total cost: $9.40
Negligible items:
Rice bran oil
Salt & pepper
Breadcrumbs (I buy a big bag of homebrand breadcrumbs once a year)
Plain flour (for coating patties)

1.  Peel, chop & boil potatoes in salted water.  Drain & mash when cooked (soft when a knife poked into it).  Set aside to cool in large mixing bowl.
2. While cooling, dice onion and place in bowl with potatoes.  Drain salmon tins (no need to reserve liquid), remove large bones & grind up fine bones (use fingers or a fork), add to bowl with onion & potatoes.
3. Add in beaten egg, a pinch of salt and shake or two of white pepper.  Add in breadcrumbs, this is a little difficult to measure, as it depends on how liquidy your mix is, I usually use about 2 Tbs.  Mix together well and form into patties.  Place onto large tray, or onto a plate, and refrigerate until ready to cook (this will help patties firm up before cooking, and also let the flavours develop).
4. Begin cooking oven chips & any other veggies you may want (I did my corn now).
5. Coat the bottom of a fry pan in oil, about 2mm deep.  Place a couple of tablespoons of plain flour onto a saucer, and gently press patties on, rolling around, flipping over, until coated, gently shake off excess flour, and place into pan. 

6. Cook, gently flipping over each patty, until both sides are golden.  Drain on paper towel.  Add more oil to pan if needed.

7.  Serve!  My kids love it with Heinz Tomato Ketchup, but for the adults we serve it with a tomato chutney, Rosella make a delicious one, it's called Geoff Janz's Tomato Chutney... yummo!

I've uploaded a couple of pics to show you how they look as you're making them... ooh technological upgrades to the blog today lol. They're not the best quality (just from my phone), and I can't rotate two of them either :P

Dinner on Day 6 was actually a free bbq, a wonderful friend of ours was celebrating her 25th birthday, so she put on a twilight bbq in the park (twilight as in the time of day, nothing to do with the books or films).  So I didn't have to make dinner that night.  She also had red velvet cake made as her birthday cake, oh wow, so yum!  I'd love to try baking one of those sometime, if anyone has a good recipe for that please do share!

Dinner on Day 7... that was a Tuna Mornay.  Big M has gone to Sydney for work, so it was just the kids & myself for dinner, so there's plenty leftover for Day 8 (which is today)... making for a very lonely Valentines Day, but a very free dinner!  I'll be posting the recipe for that in my next blog... trust me it's good!

Today is Valentines Day.  Honestly hubby & I don't really celebrate it.  And seeing as he's away for work it was going to be even less ordinary :(  BUT.... it just so happens that two friends of mine also have their husbands away for work this week (funny that isn't it?), so we've decided to have a Valentines girls night at my place tonight.  Serving spring rolls, soy crisps (the ones I mentioned in this blog http://sliceofinspiration.blogspot.com/2010/12/cinnamon-ginger.html ), m&m's, crackers & dips plus sparkling water, pineapple juice & a little softdrink... as well as the most important part - the entertainment... boardgames!  I love boardgames... yes I'm a dork, a nerd, I don't care, I love 'em!

I hope your 2011 Valentines Day will be enjoyed just as much as mine, with or without a Valentine!