First time with an Artichoke.

Saw Artichokes when I was at the greengrocers today, couldn't help myself I had to buy one.

At home a quick search on the internet I found the recipe I was looking for, I think it's Julia's, at Serious Eats.

2 globe artichokes
1 stick unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces and chilled
Juice of two lemons to make 1/4 cup
1/8 teaspoon salt
Pinch of white pepper (optional)


The only other thing I had to buy was the butter, another internet search to find how much a stick of butter weighed in grams - around 113g, a little less than half a pack.

It was my first time cooking and eating an Artichoke, I think I may have bought one before but had no idea what to do with it and ended up throwing it out.

I did find the lemon a bit overpowering, I ended up eating it with very little sauce and ground salt.

Very easy to make, time consuming to eat and not that filling, not for a one course lunch anyway. A couple of mini muffins and Tim Tams with a cup of tea helped with that.

Jammy Jammy Jam Jam.

This past week has been good, it would have been better if it hadn't rained and been overcast every day. I read, knitted, watched dvds, sewed a little, today I topped it off by making a sticky mess in my kitchen. I made Strawberry Jam using Rhonda Jean's recipe, have 5 jars processing in a water bath right now. Was left with half a jar that we sampled on toast, the way my son added jam to our toast I can see the five jars not lasting long.

It took a bit longer to cook than I thought, my fault I was worried about it burning so had it turned down too low.

I usually prefer Raspberry to Strawberry Jam but this was way up there in preferences, I doubt that any store bought jam will ever be right for me now.

Bread Making

Just did a silly thing, I was channel surfing and came across a scary movie, I watched for a moment then thought it might become too bad so switched channels. Thought to myself that I was being a wimp so switched back, within a minute my heart was pounding, screaming in my head and I may just have nightmares for the rest of my life. I figure if I laugh at myself perhaps it won't be so bad. And watching Cake Boss, might rub some sugary goodness off on me.

Had a much more relaxing day, no work for me, swapped shifts with a colleague who needs Monday off. I spent time reading blogs, getting inspired and cleaning the kitchen. Put the inspiration into action by baking some bread.

This loaf looks absolutely perfect, don't you think?

Take a closer look.......

How cute is that? The family loved the little loaves, my husband who doesn't like homemade even had some and said he liked it. I cut one into slices and made a tiny vegemite sandwich. I bought the baking tin with 8 little loaf tins at my work this week, the dough was made in my bread maker while I was cleaning/reading blogs.

Bread Machine Loaf

1 cup warm water
2 tablespoons caster sugar
1 teaspoon dried yeast
4 tablespoons vegetable oil
440g bread flour
1 teaspoon salt

Place the water, sugar and yeast in the pan of the bread machine. Let the yeast dissolve and foam for 10 minutes. Add the oil, flour and salt to the yeast. Select Basic or White Bread setting, and press Start.

A very easy, basic recipe that tasted delicious, found here at Allrecipes.

Also made my first attempt at making pizza dough, we had home made pizza for dinner. As I mentioned before my husband doesn't like homemade bread, he opted for a store bought pizza base as well. I made my pizza and when my son saw it he asked if he could have some too. He raved about how good it was, then I showed him how to use the dough to make a base. Husband must have felt left out, he told me I should make the bases again. The recipe was out of the Breville Baker's Oven Instruction manual.

Pies

After languishing, gathering dust in the pantry I pulled out the pie maker today - no hold on it wasn't me in the pantry gathering dust it was the pie maker.....although with the amount I've been cooking around here I am getting a bit dusty. The pie maker has been sitting there since last I had the urge to use it, was it last year or the year before?


Tonight, Friday is usually just my daughter and I home but soccer has been called off so the rest are home as well. So I had to come up with dinner for 4, checked the freezer and noticed some meat pie filling I made a few weeks back, I cheated and just made puff pastry tops. Also had pastry sheets in there as well. I thought the meat needed a touch more flavour and stuck about a teaspoon full of vegemite - my secret. The pies were nice but there was only enough filling to make 6, David and Thomas had 2 each. I was still hungry so cooked up an apple with a handful of frozen raspberries, a little sugar and arrowroot to thicken it. There was just enough pastry for 2. Of course Thomas put his hand up for one, I had the other with custard. Yummy.

Dinner, lunch and a snack.

Last night I made one of the recipes from the $21 Dollar Challenge book, the Potato Pie for One - I increased it to feed 4. The kids seemed to like it, though David didn't, we both thought it needed something more. Perhaps I didn't put in enough Paprika but I think I will try it again, with additions and not so thick. I cut a piece in half, through the middle and fried it up for lunch, had one piece with mustard and the other with Mint Sauce.



Tried another recipe today from the book, Snow Drops. There are only 2 ingredients, coconut and condensed milk, they have come out so good. I just had to lick the mixture off my fingers before washing my hand, it was so good I wasn't going to waste it down the drain.


I just had 2 with a cup of tea. I am going to dip the base of half the batch into chocolate and then toast the rest of the coconut, add that to the remaining chocolate to make Coconut Rough. Very Yummy. Isn't my new teacup pretty? I bought it last week, I jokingly call it my little teacup, it's really quite big, a tad under half litre. The flower on it is a Bottlebrush. It's by Maxwell and Williams, got it for half off at a closing down sale.

Update: everyone loves the Snowballs, my son's friend gave them a 9 out of 10. The Coconut Rough also got a thumbs up all around. I don't think there's much left, I'm glad I hid a few away to share with a couple of friends tomorrow.

I've had a lazy day so far, Thomas ran late for school so I drove him, he was only a couple of minutes late and I had to call the credit union about a bill I tried to pay yesterday. Web bank told me it was over my daily limit, so I went to the local branch to be told it would cost $40 for them to do. $40 for a $17 bill, you have got to be KIDDING! When I rang it turns out that they have my limit set to $0, had it reset and I was then able to pay it myself without incurring a ridiculous fee.

I did get some exercise in, yesterday I bought a Door Knob Exerciser (similar) and gave that a try. The only door knob I have room to lay down in front of is the pantry so after moving the kitchen table I lay on a quilt on the kitchen floor. Also did half hour on the treadmill while watching an old Sherlock Holmes episode.

Yoghurt and Butter Chicken Recipe

Pulled out the Easiyo last night to make some yogurt, kept it really simple by using UHT milk instead of heat treating milk, no dirty pans or extra heat in the kitchen. This morning I poured the runny yogurt into a cheesecloth lined strainer over a bowl and put the lot in the fridge. A couple of hours later I scraped the now thick and creamy yogurt out of the cheesecloth and put it into one of the small easiyo containers, had enough to fill it. There is a lot whey left, it's in the fridge I may freeze it for later use.

My son and I tried it, he had it plain and I had mine with a nectarine. It is delicious. Best I've ever made. I only read the tip of straining it through cheesecloth on the net last night to make it more like Greek yoghurt.

Used 1 litre of lowfat generic brand UHT Milk and 2 - 3 tablespoons of plain yoghurt. Milk was $1.19, carton of yoghurt $1.50. Used the rest of the yogurt in the recipe below.

My daughter and I love Butter Chicken, we usually buy it takeaway or use a bottled sauce but I've been wanting to try making it myself. It was very simple to do, just took time, it's not a last minute dish.

Butter Chicken

1.5kg chicken thigh fillets, trim fat and roughly chop
4 cloves garlic crushed
2 tsp garam masala
2 tsp ground coriander
2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp sweet paprika
1/2 tsp chilli powder
1/2 cup plain yoghurt
60g butter
410g can tomato puree (this is not the same as tomato paste!!)
1 chicken stock cube, crumbled
1 cup cream


1. Combine chicken, spices and yoghurt together in a large bowl * I mixed the spices and yoghurt first then added the chicken combining until well coated. Refrigerate for 2 - 3 hours.

2 Melt half the butter in a large pan, add half the chicken mixture. Stir over heat until chicken is lightly browned. Remove from pan, set aside and repeat with remaining chicken.

3 Return all chicken to pan, then stir in tomato puree, stock cube and 1 cup water. Bring to boil, then reduce heat and simmer uncovered for 30 minutes or until chicken is tender, stirring occasionally. Add cream and stire over heat without boiling until heated through. Serve with rice.

Happy Australia Day

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I made Passata tonight, found the link through Towards Sustainability, a great blog that I really enjoy reading. I had a false start with the recipe a few days ago, but burnt the tomatoes because I didn't pay attention to them. Had to buy more tomatoes today. Going to make a simple pasta dish with the passata tomorrow to take on our annual Australia Day picnic at a local reserve.

Australia Day commemorates the day the First Fleet first settled in Sydney Cove, our family event isn't that old. It started several years ago when along with David's mother, brother and sister-in-law we decided that we would spend the day at Parramatta Park starting with watching hot air balloons. We got there around 6am, watched the balloons for a while then decided to set up our picnic area. Wasn't long before the Sun became relentless so we started to put up a shelter only to be told that we weren't allowed to do that in the park. There was no way we were going to subject ourselves to the possibility of sunburn so we made the decision to head home, but on the way to the cars we decided to try a nature reserve right at the end of our street. We got there about 8 but didn't have the pick of the main covered picnic areas because they had reserved signs on them so we set up our covers, put a few tables together and invited other family members to join us. About 10am we noticed the ranger removing the reserved signs and were told that if the areas aren't claimed by 10 they were anyone's. We were happy with our site so didn't worry about moving, but noticed that the park was virtually empty. We had a great day, BBQ lunch, playing cricket, watching the Blacksmith before heading home for a nap and heading off to watch a free concert and fireworks at another park. It's now a tradition, hopefully one that will go on. The park is run by local council but their lease is up and state government want to take it over, there is talk of an entry fee as well as booking fees, hopefully that won't happen. We love that it is such a low budget day.

I wanted to share a great blog Eclectic Culture Farm I discovered today, it's making for interesting reading. It's about a family who are living without electricity (by choice) in an Amish community. I wondered if I could live without power, maybe I could but I doubt my family would - whatever would they do without their games consules? But then what would I do without my laptop, sewing machine and being able to sit up at night - I know a great way to save power would be to go to bed early but I get so much done when the house cools down at night.

Happy Australia Day