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I’m slowly working towards some simplicity within the home, but hey! It’s a lot of hard work!

I love having a go at growing my own veges and always use herbs fresh from my garden. I try to plant from seed whenever I can and have learnt to save and share my own seed for the following year. I make Award Winning preserves and pickles; and my husband brews Award Winning boutique beers as well. I love to stockpile and try to limit quick trips to the shops. I dabble in bread making and enjoy making my own stocks too.

I enjoy feeding my family good hearty meals, nothing like those tiny restaurant stacks you have to look for on the plate. My husband maintains our vehicles and machinery and we both enjoy fabricating on a small scale mostly relying on metal & timber recyclers for any materials needed.


While I don’t always have time to reply to comments, I love reading them. I hope you enjoy your stay and I hope you learn something new because I love sharing what I learn, and I'm always looking for another new skill myself.

Cheers!

Sunday, July 17, 2011

Kefir Scones & Sweet Egg & Bacon Pie

Well, the weekend is almost over...I've just had the boys pack away the dishes I washed after dinner.....I hope everyone had a great weekend...and achieved what they wanted to achieve.....I had big plans on finishing the paving, but alas the weather turned bad...and we had rain all weekend......Oh well, there's always something else to do around here anyway......

After today's clutter clean up....and knowing that dinner would be a bit late tonight...I decided to make a batch of scones...kind of as a snack to hold everyone over until dinner was ready.....

As I have been experimenting with Kefir milk....I thought I may as well give Kefir Scones a try.....and not having a recipe...I just substituted standard milk for Kefir milk in my recipe for plain scones.....

It goes like this....

Kefir Scones...

4 cups of Self Raising Flour
2 tablespoons of butter or margarine
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 1/2 - 2 cups of Kefir Milk...(start with 1 1/2 cups, adding more if needed.)

Set your oven to 200 degrees Celsius.....
Rub butter into flour and salt until a breadcrumb like consistency....
Using a wide-bladed knife...mix milk quickly into flour...and don't over mix.
Roll out and cut into scones....Glaze with extra milk
Place in oven until golden...usually 10 minutes

Always lay your scones like this...
They will help each other rise....

Kefir Scones...Yum!
I found Nan's old recipe for pastry the other day....and it's been playing on my mind now for a while...wondering if I could make it the way she did....I gave it a go....with an Egg & Bacon Pie.

I decided not to get any meat out of the freezer for dinner....we already had a 1kg bag of 'budget bacon' defrosted from yesterday that I hadn't used....and I had over 2 dozen eggs from the local egg farm......
so I decided to make an 'Egg and Bacon Pie'.......I did wonder how it would go, using no recipe, a sweet pastry...and not much else.....

Here is Nan's Pastry recipe...according to her writing....it makes enough pastry to do 4 tops and 4 bottoms....I assume she is talking about 'Apple Pies'.....a master at them Apple Pies; my Nan was.

Sweet Pastry for 4 tops & 4 bottoms

Here's the recipe as it is written on a little bit of paper......

1 full cup Plain Flour
2 full cups Self Raising Flour  
1/4 lb marg
1 egg beaten well
1/2 cup sugar
add water to mix well, then roll out  

(that's it)

So after rubbing the butter into the flours...I stirred the sugar through...then added a bit of water to the beaten egg and poured that over the mix....treating it like a scone mix...I blended it all together quickly...adding a little more water as needed.....wrapped it in cling wrap.....and popped it in the fridge......

Sweet Egg & Bacon Pie
For this huge baking dish...I used the following.......this will easily do us two meals...for five hungry adults.

18 eggs...well beaten
1 grated carrot
1 kg of budget bacon...rind removed then fried to remove remaining fat.
2 cups of frozen spinach....defrosted and chopped well...(put in hot water to defrost)
1 cup of home-made feta cheese ....crumbled
fresh chopped herbs......from the garden if you can
salt and pepper

Remove the pastry from the fridge after preparing all the fillings.....cut almost in half....the bigger half being for the base......
Roll out the larger piece of pastry and using the rolling pin; roll the pastry onto a very large well greased baking dish .....
Pour filling ingredients on top of pastry...
Roll out the smaller piece of pastry cut into strips....placing on top of filling....
Use an egg wash or Kefir Milk to glaze the pastry strips.....
In a moderate oven...bake until set....rotating every ten minutes or so....

If it wobbles in the centre; it's a sure sign it isn't cooked yet.

Sweet Egg and Bacon Pie 


I learn't a lot making these dishes today....I learn't that I CAN make Nan's pastry....so bring on the apples!

Best of all, I learn't that sweet pastry is OK to use on a savoury pie if you want to make your Nan's pastry recipe....

The eggs cost me $8.50 for the 2 1/2 dozen tray from the local egg farm...so $3.40 a dozen.....

Eggs $5.10
The budget bacon was a bargain at $5.00 for 1kg.
1 carrot  .50c at a guess


No immediate cost for the following, as I already had them in stock...

  • The frozen spinach was from the garden when I had heaps....
  • Home-made feta ...I already had made in the fridge..so no immediate cost
  • Flour and sugar....in my stockpile
  • chopped herbs from the garden
  • salt and pepper...in my cupboard

Total cost for the pie, not including
what I had in stock....$11.59
I think that's a pretty good meal, 
considering it will serve 
us 5 hungry adults...two big meals.

15 comments:

  1. That pie look's so good, my mum & nanna made bacon & egg pie's when i was a child. I think it's time for a revival, i'll give your's a try.

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  2. hi
    your kefir scones and pies looks very,very delicious.thanks for sharing the recipes.
    have a wonderful week,
    love regina

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  3. Looks delicious! And full of nutrition. I think bacon makes anything taste good! I opened up a bacon yesterday and fried some up. The scones look good too...is that yummy butter on them! love,andrea

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  4. My goodness that pie looks delicious! I'm going to have to give it a try!

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  5. Thanks Ladies: I'm always happy to share a recipe, especially when it tastes so good.....which I forgot to mention....
    Plates looked like they were licked clean....lol.

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  6. thanks everyone...I now have my own sourdough scones really....I'll be away for a week, but keep an eye out for a post on Wednesday which I have scheduled...It's close to my heart.

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  7. Oh, YUM! Good job on the pie - that looks fantastic! Your kefir scones look light as a feather :)

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  8. That sweet egg and bacon pie looks scrumptious. I think it may be the treat for getting the kids to eat eggs - they love bacon. We'll have leftovers too!

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  9. Egg and bacon pie.....mmmmmm good old fashioned pie. Much better than quiche Lorraine! I always loved cheese and onion pie too!
    You could safely leave out the sugar for savoury dishes....compare basic shortcrust recipe with sweet shortcrust and it's virtually the same save for the sugar!

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  10. Thanks! it was so huge too...we had plenty to go around...I love making a dish that saves me baking the following day...ahhh leftovers....
    Thanks KK, I will try leaving out the sugar for a savoury dish.

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  11. What a beautiful pie! I raise hens, and often make a couple of egg pies when there are extra eggs to be used. Rarely meat to add, but usually have a variety of cheeses on hand, and spinach or other veg - don't think I've ever made the same pie twice! Mine are never as pretty as yours, but now I'm inspired to try :)

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  12. made these scones today and added a little cheese. they rose beautifully and were light and fluffy, thank you!

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  13. I right you by Rome! This afternoon I try the scones because I'have an solitary cup of kefir in fridge! :) For the italians your blog is very.... exotic, and is the chance for taste foreign recipes! So, many compliments ;) follow me in my blog for taste the italian traditional food! :) smack, Chiara.

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  14. I love your enthusiasm for good family fare, full of goodness and tasty. I guess that your Mum and Nan are smiling down on your efforts saying "That's our girl".

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