Stash Avalanche

Show and Tell Tuesday - quilted placemats

Ok, so welcome to the first Show and Tell Tuesday hosted by Randi at I have to say...

I decided over the weekend that we need to have some placemats that we actually use. Ones that aren't unwashable (pretty bamboo ones) or get ripped up by Stashlet (thin cork ones) or  are too big for the table (plastic Ikea ones).

In a world where I had plenty of money to spend on nice things, I would have some of these. But in the meantime, I will make some (hopefully naff-free) quilted ones. The fabric is an Ikea table runner that I have cut into four, and I plan to sandwich it with a bit of medium weight calico and some cotton batting, then quilt it by hand and bind it with some navy blue bias (deafening silence on my plea for quilting help, by the way).

So here they are, fresh out of the washing machine and ready for some sandwich action...

 

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Baked risotto

And while you have the oven on...

A while back, Alicia at Posy Gets Cosy wrote a post where she mentioned making her first risotto and I commented that I do mine baked (most so that I don't have to hang around the cooker for half an hour), and kind of promised to post my recipe.

I must say that I too am a latecomer to the world of risotto. The idea of slimey creamy rice with cheese just didn't do it for me but I must have been having an extra optimistic day when I was looking for something to feed Stashlet and I thought I'd give it a go. Turns out the rice is not really slimey, and the cheese actually works, and Stashlet likes it too, so it has been appearing regularly on the Stash Towers menu in a number of variations.

So here, belatedly, is the recipe.

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Oven-baked aubergine and courgette risotto

from the Baby-led Weaning Cookbook by Gill Rapley and Tracey Murkett

serves 2 adults and 1 baby (generously) (or 3 normal sized adult portions)

500-600ml (18-21 fl oz) vegetable stock

2 tbs olive oil

1 medium onion, chopped

2 cloves of garlic, chopped

1 small aubergine

1 medium courgette

250g (9oz) risotto rice

knob of butter

60g (20z) grated parmesan

freshly ground pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 200C/ 400F/gm6 and put the stock on to heat in a pan.

Heat the oil (preferably in a flame-proof casserole so you don't have to transfer the food at the next stage). Add the onion and fry until soft. Add the garlic and after a few seconds, add the other vegetables. Cook until they start to soften. Add the rice and stir to make sure that all the grains have a light coating of oil. Add 500ml (18fl oz) of the stock and bring to the boil. Cover the dish (or transfer the mixture from the pan to an oven-proof casserole) and put it in the oven for 30 minutes, then stir gently and add more hot stock of necessary. Bake for another 10 minutes.

Remove from the oven, check the texture of the rice: if cooked add the butter (if using), parmesan cheese and black pepper, and stir again. Cover the dish and leave it to rest for a few minutes before serving.

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A few notes:

If you're using this for baby weaning, cut the vegetables into sticks so that the baby can hold one end and eat the other. Otherwise, cut the veg however you want it.

Use a bigger pan than you would normally use to cook rice in - my first attempt had bits of veg sticking to the lid when it came out of the oven. Veg takes up more room than you'd think.

It seems to me that you can do pretty much anything you please with risotto. I've done several variations, the nicest was chicken and mushroom (3 chicken breasts sliced and browned with the onion, and 3 or 4 big portobello mushrooms cut into slices).

This stuff reheats well, and you can also make aranchini, which is basically cold risotto (with any big lumps cut small) rolled into little sausage shapes, dipped in egg and breadcrumbs and fried until crispy and golden. Haven't tried this yet but it sounds interesting.

I am bad and use stock cubes. My home made stock usually tastes crap. If you're feeding this to babies, make sure you use a low salt (or preferably no salt) stock.

Homestead eggs

Cor, this weather is epic!

We're having a mixture of snow and hail, with the odd bit of sleet and clap of thunder thrown in for good measure. I've never known snow and thunder to go together before now, and the hail, rather than being little pellets of ice,  is little soft balls of snow (I examined some when it came down the cihmney last night!). Perhaps it is the wetter climate of Ireland compared to what I'm used to in the UK; I'm just glad we're staying here for Xmas this year and not trying to get a plane to the out-laws!

I tramped through the slush this morning to the supermarket to buy onions and apples for Homestead Eggs. So much slush everywhere! I love this dish, it's really savory and more-ish, and I'm a soft yolk addict too (although what with the bump I'm having to eat set egg yolks at the moment which is rather disappointing).

The recipe comes from the breakfast section of my lovely Book of Egg Cookery and it makes a great supper dish served with leftover potatoes fried in a bit of olive oil or bacon fat. Yum!

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Homestead Eggs (adapted from the Book of Egg Cookery)

3 medium onions

3 sharp dessert apples (I either use Coxes Orange Pippins or a couple of Bramleys)

4 derinded bacon rashers (I generally use a packet of bacon bits)

3oz butter (I think this is far too much butter (but it was the Seventies!) and I generally leave it out because the bacon has enough fat on it)

8 eggs

Chop the rashers and fry gently either in the butter, or in a dry pan (and they'll render out some fat pretty quickly).  Slice the onions and core and chop the apples (no need to peel them).  As the bacon starts to brown a bit , add the onions and allow these to soften for a couple of minutes before adding the apple.  Take off the heat once the mixture is soft and the apples broken down.

(You can make bulk quantities of this and freeze it at this stage if you like.)

Break the eggs on top of the mixture, cover the pan tightly and leave to cook for 3-5 minutes depending on how firm you like your eggs. You could also do this bit in the oven if it's more convenient.

Serves 4

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You can use sausages or sliced frankfurters instead of the bacon if you like.

I made a vat of this using red onions this morning and it looks very pretty (but sorry no photo as it's like The Undersea World of Jaques Costeau in the kitchen at the moment). Most of it will go in the freezer, and the rest will go in me for supper tonight! Double yum!

 

(Temporary) disaster

I was terrifyingly productive yesterday. Which makes up for the past week, when I managed to achieve a foot of shawl and not much else.

I finished the Burda dress, I hoovered, I went for a walk, I shopped, I made a cake for Mr G to take to work (choc chip marble), I made a cake for me (glacé cherry), I made Semolina Barbecue Buns (bread not cake and really good, try them), I baked apples, I made a whole heap of curry, and I dyed the Burda dress.

Things went very well except that I wasn't holding the Pyrex properly when I took it out of the oven, so in two seconds flat I had baked apple and broken pyrex lid all over the oven floor. Annoying.

And the dyeing. Oh. Dear. Oh dearie dearie me.

I went for Dylon's Rosewood Red. On Dylon's website, it looks like a plumy colour. You can't really tell from the photo on the packet of dye - it shows a slice of tree trunk in various shades of orangey red (Dear Dylon, your product images are pretty but completely uninformative. Please rectify). I was hoping for something in the plumy department, but instead it looks like I need to go and join the Brownies...

 

Oh. My. God.

Isn't this the most hideous colour you have ever seen? Yesterday I had to keep picking my jaw up of the floor because of the horror. Today, I just feel like laughing. Hysterically. Poor, poor Burda dress.

The actual dress turned out quite nicely. I like the shape and the style, and it was very quick and simple once I got my arse in gear.. But oh, that colour. There's no point even ironing the poor thing; it's going to have to go straight back in the laundry bin. I am not going to chicken out and dye it blue, so I will have to think for a while about what colour to try next. Dylon do a colour remover and I think I will have to use that first, because unless I go for black or dark brown, I think traces of this current AWFULNESS will still be visible.

So, if you need to waste €10, go dye something in Rosewood Red, and buy a packet of dye remover while you're at it.

On a more positive note, the cakes are delicious, the curry was to die for and the bread was fab with marmite for breakfast. And delicious food nearly always makes up for bad crafting experiences.

Double delicious

Hello there.

Today I'm talking more than double delicious, I'm talking do-you-think-if-I-had-a-third-helping-anyone-would-notice?

Here's the story.

My neighbour is growing beetroot and some if it has bolted. So I said I'd take some of it because, did you know, you can use the leaves and stalks just like you would spinach. So I made my version (or one of them because I pretty much make it up as I go along every time) of spanakopita. Oooh, I have been dreaming of making spanakopita for ages now. If you haven't heard of it before, it's a Greek pie-of-sorts made with filo pastry, spinach and feta cheese; it either comes in individual triangles (looking a bit like samosas) or as one big pie that is cut into portions. I L.O.V.E. it!!!

Over the years I've pretty much gone off on a tangent regarding the recipe so if you want authentic, go Google it, but as I'm trying to lose weight, I made a special effort today to do a lower fat version, and my god, is it good. Sorry to blow my own trumpet but I really did have a difficult time stopping myself from having a third piece, and it hadn't even cooled down properly.

The only thing I can't help you with is the amount of beetroot leaves I used, and as I'm guessing you're more likely to use spinach, that probably isn't a problem, but here's a bit of preamble just in case.

I used the leaves and leaf stalks of about 20 beetroot plants but not the main central stalk which was tough towards the bottom and woody. I also chopped in the flower buds as well for good measure. Then I cooked them in a lump of butter and a splosh of olive oil with the saucepan lid squashed down as tight as I could. And I think I ended up with about a pint and a half of cooked leaves and stalks, of which I used half in the pie.

You could also use something like chard as well, but for the purposes of simplicity, let's stick to spinach.

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Today's version of Spanakopita

4.5 sheets of filo pastry (that's probably half a box if you buy it frozen from the supermarket)

about a kilo of frozen spinach, defrosted (mine comes in 450g bags so two of those do fine)

6 eggs

450g low fat cottage cheese (or thereabouts, mine comes in 225g tubs, so again two does the trick)

35g parmesan 

1.5 tsp salt

spray oil

(see note at end for improvising other ingredients)

First the oven. I have a (temperamental) fan oven so I set it to 150C; if you don't have a fan go a bit higher, let's say about 170C. I think that's around the 350/375 mark if you work in Fahrenheit.

Lining the tin with the filo is the fiddly bit because it can tear easily especially if it dries out. Oil a 9"/  23cm tin (bottom and sides) and layer four of the sheets of filo into it, spraying each one with spray oil as you go. Have the first sheet central in the tin with the excess hanging out to the left and right, then have the next one hanging out top and bottom, then do that all again. You'll probably find you don't get brilliant coverage in the corners and this is what the half sheet is for. Cut it into four triangles or squares, spray them with the oil, and use them to cover any gappage in the corners of the tin.

Mix the eggs, cheeses and salt until well combined, and pour into the tin. Now gather up your overhanging bits of filo and scrunch them gently and artistically back into the tin to create an edge. That's it. Put it in the oven for an hour, and if it has a gentle but firm wobble it's done. If it isn't, I'd say turn the oven off, but leave the pie in for a while.

Try to let it cool to warm of room temperature before you jump in.

Variations:

• more parmesan (I did wonder if 35g would be enough but it turned out just right for me)
• feta or another salty crumbly cheese
• add olives (delicious!)
• a chopped sauteed onion or fresh spring onions
• cheddar instead of parmesan (but you get a better hit of cheese for less fat if you go down the parmesan route I think)
• use the rest of the filo to make a lid
• you could use standard shortcrust pastry if you felt like it to but filo is much lower in fat
• you could also do individual triangles but you will need a much higher ration of filo to filling (guessing here but perhaps twice the filo to half the filling)
• you can also of course, brush each sheet of filo with oil but this considerably increases the fat content (today was my first time using the spray oil method and it worked a treat)

Oh, and Weight Watchers points info: one sixth costs 4 points, which is pretty damn good if you ask me (and sufficient justification for extra helpings)

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The other thing I've been wanting to make for a while is a lemon version of my yoghurt cake.  The original idea was to make lemon curd and mix it with fromage frais or curd cheese and a jelly in a kind of cheesecake stylee, but that had to be reduced to a watching-my hips-decrease version. So when I saw our local supermarket selling Onken fat free vanilla yoghurt in big pots, I thought that would be a good place to start. Proper fruit is good and healthy too so I threw in some strawberries for good measure.

 

Hmm, note to self: Arrange the strawberries a bit better next time.

It's good. Not as good as the spanakopita, but as Mr G would say, definitely edible.

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Lemon and strawberry yoghurt cake

a 9"/ 23cm sponge flan case

one lemon, zested and juiced

about 400g vanilla yoghurt (or use plain if that's what you have)

250g strawberries, hulled and sliced or quartered

1 lemon jelly (to set a pint of liquid)

Zap the jelly in the microwave with a couple of tablespoons of water for about 30 seconds then give it a good stir to make sure it's melted properly. Add the zest and juice of the lemon, and the yoghurt so that it makes up to about a pint (a bit over is generally fine).

Here's the slightly tricky bit. You need to let the jelly mixture partiallly set before you put it in the flan case otherwise there'll be filling in a big puddle everywhere. Better to have it a bit too solid than too runny. This might take a while, but keep checking!

When it gets to a thick custard type consistency, spread a couple of tablespoons onto the base of the case to form a sealing layer, then put on the strawberries. Then top with the rest of the jelly (you can whip it up with a hand mixer if you want it a bit airy and mousse-y but that didn't really work for me today). Allow it to chill for about 4 hours in the fridge before you tuck in.

WW Points 6 per 1/8th

By the way, if you want to make the original yoghurt cake with frozen berries, proceed pretty much as above but add the yoghurt to the jelly before you add the frozen berries (you can crush them a bit if you like) otherwise the jelly will go all stringy and not set properly (like last week's effort when I was really not paying attention). And be aware that the filling will start to solidify almost immediately, (which is what makes it such a quick cake to make) so it will be ready to go into the flan case within about 10 minutes of mixing.

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So a double whammy of deliciousness today. Here's hoping my neighbour's beetroot continues to bolt  ;¬)

The Book of Egg Cookery

Did I tell you I love this book? Oh, yes, I did. But did I show you how wonderful it is? Ah well, you see, the cake took precedence. Well, not in this post. 

Just so we are clear: I LOVE THIS BOOK. 



My mother got this when I was very little. Possibly from the milkman (who used to sell eggs) or possibly by saving up coupons on egg boxes. I can't remember and neither can she. It was produced by the British Egg Marketing Board, which Wikipedia says was set up in 1956 to encourage sales of eggs. These were the people who started printing lion logos on the egg shells as a mark of quality. The book was published in 1969, and the organisation folded in 1971, so I feel like it is an heirloom to be treasured. I also thought that about the Golden Hands Encyclopedia of Crafts which my mother sent to jumble, but that's another story. Humpf.

This book has everything you could possibly want to know about eggs, what they are, why they do what they do (thicken, bind, emulsify...). It tells you what you can do with them, and there are little anecdotes scattered throughout the pages (like this quote from Mark Twain: "nothing helps scenery like ham and eggs". Isn't that great?). It is illustrated with photographs of beautiful plasticine models, like that chicken on the cover, and wonderful Seventies drawings like this wizard demonstrating the art of whipping egg whites...



There are little mini-chapters on how to do basic things like how to cook eggs as eggs (I mean boiling, poaching, scrambling...), different sorts of omelettes, custards (which is where I went for the Donauwelle ), batters, souffles... and then a set of recipe chapters divided into the standard titles like Soups ans Starters, Cheese, Desserts etc.

Why do I love this book so much? It has all the basics. It has nice straightforward recipes (apart from a few Seventies odd-balls). I grew up with it. It is laid out nicely (I have a thing about layouts, but I won't bore you). But mostly because it is, for me, an epitome of the Seventies. Call me odd but I never thought that it was a decade for time to forget. I always wanted to be the girl in the balloon eating Nimble bread, or the girl with flowing hair in the hay field drinking Eden Vale Drinking Yogurts which came in a plastic pot shaped like a medieval goblet. As a small child looking on, it was a decade of exuberance, bright colours, flowing dresses, and romance (of an Eden Vale Drinking Yogurt kind) (oh, and Marc Bolan). And this wonderful book sums these things up for me. In the images, in the writing, and even in some of the recipes.

How can you not fall for pages like these...



I wonder what all those kids are doing now.



Theme and variations, and what-went-wrong guides.



Illustrated recipes with variations.



 And plasticine models. Of course.

Some of the information may be out of date, the recipes may occasionally vere towards Fanny Craddock, the images may be dated (but in a good way), but I still use this book regularly, I still make dishes from it, and I can't see myself stopping any time soon.
 
The one sad thing? It doesn't have an ISBN number (or at least I can't find one), so there is no official copy somewhere in the British Library to be saved and loved and cherished by generations to come. Am I over doing it? Exaggerating even? Perhaps, but it is an egg cookery book.

Ultimate comfort food

I love this. Loveitloveitloveit. Could eat it every day. What is it? Broccoli pasta cheese with salami. Ohmigod, I love it. Mr G and I somehow invented this in our heady student days, although it is quite possible that 50,000 people have also independently invented it. Sorry. Just had to share how much I love this with you.

And then there's pudding. Bread and butter pudding (with (rather old) pandoro and no butter actually, but let's not split hairs here). Quite a long time ago I discovered that brioche makes fabulous b&b pud, and I decided to see if pannetone would work just as well (and salve my conscience a bit because it doesn't have half the fat of brioche). And it does. You should try it.



And finally, cake. Well, the oven was on, what could I do?



As is my wont when I'm blog reading, I always end up reading the blogs I subscribe to, and all the blogs they link to, and all the blogs they link to... nearly ad infinitum. And because of this, I stumbled upon Smitten Kitchen and her walnut jam cake. I like nut cake a lot but somehow I've never made any and this just sounded delish, so last night I went for it.

You have to toast the walnuts in the oven before you grind them, and I have to say that the resulting ground nut and sugar mix tasted really synthetic and I became very doubtful that anything good would come out of the oven. But I was utterly wrong. The cake is (sorry, I have to say it again) delish - on it's own, and with the jam and cream as the recipe suggests - and nothing like it's uncooked self. I don't have a food processor so the nuts were ground in a coffee grinder and a bit on the lumpy side, but I thought this made the cake even better. I think next time, I will try with hazelnuts, and add the nuts with the flour instead of mixing with the sugar at the beginning. But in any case, it's fab and I recommend it to you.

Nearly Spring

Hello! I've been making vegetable soup and there is something about chopped leeks that always make me feel very Springy - it's all those different colour greens. They do it for me every time.



So I thought I would share some other things that are green and make me feel Springy, despite the fact that it is FREEZING here today.

Two bracelets that I made a while ago. This one ...
...


and this one...



Sorry about the background. I had to photograph them on one of the cat tree steps - it was the only place with enough sunshine.

One of my very new hellebore seedlings...


Not a great photo, but very Springy none the less.

And my spring garden from the wonderful but tiny cottage I lived in in Suffolk...
 


What make you feel Springy?

Happy Saturday!

This week has not been entirely positive, but the positive parts are mostly happening today and mostly involve cake.

Yesterday I made a raspberry yoghurt cake, which we managed not to start last night, and will be post-squash fodder for Mr G and his friend C, and of course, me. It's basically a big pot of fruits of the forest yoghurt, mixed with a strawberry jelly and a bag of frozen raspberries, and all poured into a sponge flan case when it's on the point of setting. I could eat it for nearly every meal.



I make it all the time in the summer with different fruit and jelly combinations, and like to think of it as my slimming version of cheesecake. And when it's not supposed to be "diet" food, I use fromage frais or similar instead of the yoghurt.


Just out of the oven 20 minutes ago are a plain vanilla sponge and a caraway seed cake, both prompted by a Lack Of Pudding last night (and the taunts of the raspberry yoghurt cake in the fridge). These will go in the freezer in pieces, ready to satisfy The Need For Cake.



I just have to make sure these don't become post-squash fodder too although hopefully Mr G will be put off by the caraway.


And just to finish, two other jolly-making things from today. Firstly my hellebores are flowering...



... and secondly, the combination of stripey socks and my wonderful girly Clarks shoes, which always make me cheerful.



Happy Saturday!

Heaven on a plate

Oooooh. The last time I ate home made Boston Baked Beans was when I was about 12 and my mother made a pot full. I still remember how fabulous it was. And then last week, I got it into my head to make some myself. And today was BBB Day! And I have to say it was oooooh all over again. With mash. Double oooooh.

So much for telling you about sewing. I'll try to get to that tomorrow.