Mandarins galore & Stockpiling Brocoli

First of all, I need to apologise to each and every person who has been following and/or reading my blog....I have been quite swamped these last few weeks, and to say I haven't had time to blog; is an understatement......

Some of you will already know that I am caring for my elderly mother....at the moment, Mum has a torn cartilage in her knee and is waiting to be operated on in September....it is a day only operation, so she will be in and out in the one day....once she starts to get over the operation, at least she will be mobile again......

I also have my DS19 who has lost his licence due to a lack of points, so I need to get up at around 5am every morning now to take him to the train station....I get back home and I have had 20 minutes before taking DS16 off to Work Experience......so I am back home from getting them both on their way by around 6.30am.....All in a days work........a very tiring and long day.
This week, is just train station...ad DS16 is back at school resuming studies for the week, but the following week, he will be on Work Experience again at another location.

Back to blogging....I knocked on a ladies door about ten days ago....Oh My! Has it been that long, she will be thinking I am not coming back....I had been eyeing off her lovely huge mandarin tree for a while now...and it soon got the better of me, and I approached her to ask if I could barter some fruit from her in exchange for some baking.....so this is what I have done with the mandarins so far............

Mandarin Kefir drink

For this amount of Kefir,
I used 2 cups of Mandarin juice
It could have been stronger, but it was lovely just the same.

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Mandarin Jelly from "Wonderful ways to prepare PRESERVES by Jo Ann SHIRLEY page 52"

1 1/2kg (3lb) mandarins
1 lemon
15g (1/2 oz) citric acid
11 cups (2 3/4 litres) water
1 3/4 kg (3 1/2lb) sugar
1. Chop the mandarins and the lemon into small bits, peel, pith and all.
2. Mix together the mandarins, lemon, citric acid and water in a large bowl and allow to soak overnight.
3. Transfer to a large saucepan and simmer for about 1 1/2 hours or until the lemon rind is tender.
4. Pour the mixture into a jelly bag and allow to drip for at least 12 hours.
5. Pour the juice into a large saucepan and add the sugar.
6. Heat gently, stirring constantly, until the sugar is dissolved.
7. Bring to the boil and boil rapidly until the jelly has reached setting point.
8. Pour into warm sterilised jars and seal when cold.

 Today I will strain the pulp and water mix, then tomorrow I will finish the recipe.

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Mandarin Cake

While the whizzer is dirty with mulched Mandarin and lemon...I decided to just give it a quick rinse...then make Rhonda's Whole Orange Cake

INGREDIENTS

1 whole orange   

3 eggs

180 g melted butter (6.3 oz)

1 cup white sugar

1½ cups self raising flour OR 1½ plain  (all purpose) flour with 1½ teaspoons baking powder sifted in

I weighed an orange, then used that weight in mandarins.....I also doubled the recipe, which I usually do, seeing the oven is on and there is space......I thought it would be  great way to use up all the little mandarins that are fiddly to peel.....*see note

There are five of the mini bar cakes missing, as we had these for dessert.
Today I will deliver the large cake to the lovely lady that gifted me the mandarins
Then tomorrow I will give her a few jars of the Mandarin Jelly

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 Mandarin Icing

* Please take note of the amount of rind you use....I found because I used lots of little mandarins, I had more rind....this made the cake slightly bitter or tangy.......so I decided to ice the cakes...adding a bit more sweet to the cakes paid off. I don't usually ice my cakes, but I think this called for it to be done.....Next time I will roughly guess the amount of rind in an orange, and substitute that same amount in Mandarin Rind.

Add a nob of butter to help make the icing mixture set.
Use mandarin juice to flavour the icing

If it is too thick to spread easily on a cake...........

Add a little more juice.

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Broccoli for the freezer

I really admire those of you who can grow your own veg and have the space to grow enough to put up in the freezer....But for me, as I don't have the space in my garden to grow a lot of Broccoli.....I grab it when it is at a great cheap price....This time it was .99cents per kilogram....What a bargain!

I'm trying a new method of draining the broccoli....after blanching in boiling water for 2 minutes...I immersed the broccoli in cold water, changing the water twice with each batch...If you add too much broccoli into the boiling water, it will take longer to come back to the boil, exposing the broccoli to the heat  for longer than needed. Stopping the cooking process quickly in cold water, keeps the lovely green colour that broccoli has.

I love eating the stem of broccoli while preparing the dinner veg, (This is what a like to call a cook's treat, or snack on the go)......as there was far too many stems to munch in one sitting, I decided to give Lacto Fermenting a go...this way, they can be added to a salad plate or at least snacked on straight from the fridge.......

For this amount, I added 1 tablespoon of salt

Add the salted broccoli to a clean sterilised jar, then top with boiled cooled water
Loosely cover with a lid, and leave on the bench at room

Add the salted broccoli stems to a clean sterilised jar, then top with cooled boiled water.
Loosely cover with a jar lid (not shown), and leave at room temperature for 3 to 5 days....tasting every 12 hours or so after day 3.

I'll let you know how it goes........


7 bags of Broccoli for the freezer, some for dinner that night, and the lacto fermented stems....
Not bad for around $4.....

Oh, and the water I used to blanch all that broccoli.....I added some chicken carcasses to it, to make my chicken and veg stock for the week, which I will also be straining today.

Overall, I think I had a pretty productive Sunday. Hope to see you all back....please leave a comment on my blog, I would love to hear from you all.

Combination stock

I'm planning on making some lollies for my 4 legged girls...Rusty and Cindy....Rhonda has a great recipe for dog biscuits over at Down to Earth.....

I usually just make Chicken stock every weekend which provides me with soup for the week....but as I want some stock for the girls treats; I decided to go all out, buying chicken carcasses...and beef bones.

When I make a stock, I usually put some herbs in from the garden as well....and some veg too....It all adds to the lovely flavour of a stock. There is no hard and fast rules to making a stock...although some would have you believe otherwise.....I always just use what I have on hand....especially if I have any older veg or am preparing veg for dinner....I will always add the peelings too....Yep! the peelings...they will eventually go in my bokashi bucket...but I'm getting as much goodness from them as I can first.

Cilantro, Parsley, Purple basil (stems), garlic chives & Rosemary.
Instead of throwing those old stems of herbs in the compost
use them in your stock first,
there is plenty of flavour in the stem of a herb.

Chicken Carcasses $1.25 per kilogram.....$1.90
Beef Bones $2.99 per kilogram......$4.60

Bundle up your herbs with an elastic band
also both ends of the leek from my Leek soup
as well as carrot and parsnip tops, leftover from dinner prep.

as well as any peelings from preparing your veg for dinner

 While starting this stock, I always prepare the veg for that night's meal....this makes one mess to clean up..and they will be fine sitting in the steamer until I'm ready to turn it on.

after pinching some foe my Leek Soup.
Don't stir up your stock once it get's to this stage
Stirring your stock will make it cloudy.

After your stock has been simmering for a few hours, remove the bulkier items from the liquid, then using a cloth over your strainer, strain the liquid, being careful not to disturb the sediment.....

If you would like to remove the fat's in the stock, (although I don't, unless it is really oily)
store it in the fridge overnight, this will allow the fat to settle on the top of the stock. simply scrape the top fatty layer off your stock and it is ready to use.

Upside down Pear & Ginger Dessert

I'd like to say I have been flat out here at my blog, but lately life has just gotten in the way...and before you know it; the day is ending....Night seems to come so quickly now...and we have had an enormous amount of rain in the last two days.....I have so much to tell you...I have been very busy taking photos of things that have been happening....but unfortunately I just haven't had time to write. I was stunned when I came back on to find my visitors had climbed another 2000 hits, and I have some more new followers....VeggieGobbler, AfricanAussie, Linda, Angela, Leonie, Miri & Tammy...(Hi Tammy)..Welcome to my blog!

I have some exciting news...I recently met up with Tammy from the Down to Earth Forum....she also blogged about out visit here. Tammy has a few blogs, she is one very creative lady...it's certainly worth having a look around her blogs....While there time slipped by so easily that we didn't even think to eat...chatting through lunch time....I guess sometimes you just forget to eat when you are in good company.
I took a few books with me, and sitting at the table Tammy browsed through my books and I browsed through hers.

Tammy has a lovely garden, including many fruit trees along with 5 plum trees & a lovely Golden Delicious Apple....which was discovered that day....Until my visit, Tammy had thought it was a crab-apple tree. I convinced her to try one off the ground, as she had left them be.....The apples were slightly stunted but I found a larger one amongst the leaves...and gave it to Tammy.....She actually tasted it...I thought they were lovely...but I think if I had bitten deeper, I would have found they were ridden by fruit-fly.....I didn't have the nerve to Tammy that though...as I knew it was a huge step for her to try something from the ground. (Sorry Tammy, but at least you have a Golden Delicious Apple Tree now, and not a Crab Apple Tree). I'd much rather the Golden Delicious.

Could I tell Tammy that she could collect all the apples from the ground, cut away the bad bits...and press them making apple juice...or even ferment them to make vinegar......?
I wonder if she would gather them...that is if she had time...she is one very busy gal.

While there Tammy had baked this lovely light and fluffy Upside Down Pear & Ginger Dessert....We enjoyed a slice while browsing through the books.......I knew right then, that my family would love this dessert.

You know; when you have had a good hearty meal......

and there is dessert to come, but you just can't fit it in......

You could fit this in!         It's so light and fluffy.

Upon coming home...I think the second day back, I cooked the dessert to the recipe...but now I have cooked it again, using apples and I also cooked a 4 batch....this way the oven is being used to it's fullest, We get to have the dessert again ....and there are 3 more desserts for the freezer...to be enjoyed at a later date.
It can't get much better than this....Sarah Lee eat your heart out...!!.

Here is the recipe for ONE BATCH and a few photos of the 4 batch  I made today....

UPSIDE DOWN PEAR & GINGER DESSERT


For the topping, which is actually the first layer in the pan.
2 tablespoons Brown Sugar
1 tablespoon melted Butter
1 firm, sliced Pear
Set the oven to 160 degrees Celsius...Place the melted butter in a loaf tin, then sprinkle the brown sugar over the butter. Arrange the sliced Pear on top of the sugar mix....arrange in a pattern if you wish.

Now the batter.
150 grams Butter
60 grams Brown Sugar
80 grams of Flour...(I used Plain Wholemeal Four)
1 teaspoon Baking Powder
2 teaspoons ginger (I used the bottled crushed ginger)
1 egg
1/4 cup milk (this wasn't included in the original recipe, but I felt it was needed, and so did Tammy)


Cream the butter and sugar together, then beat in the egg. Add the remaining ingredients, and mix well.
Pour the batter over the sliced Pear and bake for about 30 minutes....
Allow to set in the loaf tin until cool to the touch...(I found a better result when turning the dessert up-side down, if you allow it to cool first). 


You will certainly enjoy this dessert...I told my boys they were in for a treat and that it even trumped my Golden Syrup Dumplings.......they couldn't believe me, but after tasting the new dessert......they agreed.


Thanks again Tammy for a lovely day, and a lovely recipe.

I'm so lucky....we have three more of these in the freezer..

desserts can be part of your stockpile too!

Do you stockpile any desserts in your freezer?

Lemon juice for your stockpile

I never pass up the opportunity of free lemons...Thanks Poppy for the lemons off your tree.......I use lots of lemon juice when preserving. Lemon Juice contains plenty of pectin which helps thicken jams and preserves. A good batch of jam usually uses about 1/2 cup of lemon juice....so this is the amount I am freezing this time...I already have smaller amounts frozen in ice-cube trays.

I have an old Breville juicer that I have had for over 20 years...I rarely use my juicer for anything else, but will keep it until it dies....I love my gadgets, especially the ones that save time and elbow grease in the kitchen.

I am actually looking forward to the day this one does give up as I have researched new ones and they are much more superior with a huge shoot that allows you to juice full fruit. Mine has a tiny feed shoot where I need to cut up apples into eight pieces to make them fit. So when my machine dies, it will be a blessing. For now; I just can't see the  point in buying another juicer when this one still works....When the time does come though, I will try to source a second hand one.

Once you get going, it really doesn't take much time at all to juice a bag of lemons...the lemon skins were not so good looking, so they weren't used for my citrus cleaner, but they sure went into my compost bins.

 

I kept some lemons aside to use for Rhubarb Champagne.

Once frozen, these will be placed in a press-seal bag
and put back in the freezer.

The tree I sourced these lemons from has had a bad year...and not all the lemons are healthy....so after cutting them in half, any that were bad went straight to the compost pile. Please don't use the juice from a bad lemon.

Spinach in your stockpile

It was a busy weekend in the kitchen....I hope everyone had a lovely weekend, mine was spent mostly in the kitchen doing what I love...

I was given 2 large bunches of spinach, so I wanted to preserve it for future use...We don't usually eat spinach on it's own as a side vegetable, but I love adding it to recipes like quiche, stir-fries, soups and stocks etc.

Place a huge pot of water on the stove to boil....once boiling .
Wash and rinse the spinach, then cut to size the way you use spinach. I cut mine into about 1/2 inch strips....this way I can use it as is, or shred it more later depending on the recipe.
Once the water comes to the boil, add half the spinach then place lid on pot, allow to blanch for 3 minutes then lift out with a strainer.
Place the spinach in a bowl of cold water to stop the cooking process.
Strain well, then pack in serving sizes in muffin trays and freeze.

After blanching and freezing in single uses.

Stored in the freezer in a press-seal bag.
Another food for your stockpile.

Next time you have plenty of spinach in the garden, preserve it for when it is not so bountiful.

Mushrooms, Mushrooms, & more Mushrooms

You may remember the last trip I made to the mushroom farm when I got a flat tyre on the trailer in my street.......well I  have some update photos to share with you......
I get my mushroom compost bags for $3 each from the Fort Drummond Mushroom Farm in Mt St Thomas .....you need to ring ahead to pick them up, and I was recommended Thursdays for pick up......
There details are:

Fort Drummond Mushroom Farm
Television Avenue,
Mt St Thomas  NSW  2500, Australlia
 (02) 4228 5403


I would also recommend that you tell them you are planning to use the compost bags for the garden, and possibly gather a few a few mushrooms before hand if any pop up.  Of course when you water them lightly twice a day, and store them in a cool, dark place like under the house.....You will reap a few harvests of lovely fresh mushrooms like I have.


I have had three good harvests so far from this lot...and there is still more to come....when you see little tiny pin-head mushrooms coming through, its important to remember to water them, as they are vulnerable to drying out and not growing on to huge mushrooms. 


Also when you think there are no more mushrooms coming up, keep watering them twice a day for anything up to 10 days or more, and you will find more little pin-heads poking through the soil, ......just when you think there are no more mushroom spores.....you get more.


I drool over these photos

My good friend Sonia told me that if you sprinkle broken mushrooms in a garden bed and cover with soil, that you will get mushrooms to grow. I have a little experiment going in the new Berries garden bed....I covered the mushroom bits....and keep the soil moist.....I just have to wait now....
Thanks Sonia,, for the great tip....If I get mushrooms come up, I will post about it.

21 April.....First harvest

25 April......Second harvest

28 April........Third harvest...Wow!!!

So about every third or fourth day.....I am picking mushrooms. I just can't complain.
Sonia, I hope your bags of mushroom compost are producing for you as well.

Vanilla Sugar, Bay Leaves, Grab n Go Cakes & True Treats.

Today I did more research and housework than anything else...but I did decide to make some Vanilla sugar...I haven't had vanilla sugar in the house for a few years....so it will be nice to be able to use it again...

A good tip when slicing open a Vanilla Pod, is to hold it above some boiling water for a few minutes...this will rehydrate it slightly; making it easier to slide the point of your knife down the entire length of the pod...Slicing into the pod allows you to extract the lovely seeds inside. I use a teaspoon to scrape the seeds out of the pod. I will leave this sugar to work its magic for a few weeks before I start using it.
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A while back I was given a large amount of Bay Laurel leaves from my Freecycle friend Sonia....After hanging them to dry I removed the leaves from the branches...Today I sorted out what I will use for cooking and what I will use for getting rid of cockroaches...It's all out war here at the moment, with bugs of all sorts wanting a small slice of our heaven....We have little fruit bugs hanging around in the kitchen, getting into everything I do in the kitchen...The trap I made yesterday is working, but I think I need more of them to eliminate the bugs quicker....I also have scale on the Lemon Tree and a caterpillar that looks like bird poo....And a different scaley bug thing on the fejoa tree...Oh cockroaches....they are everywhere...I think this whole area is really bad for them...Oh and I have a rat again in the garden....I know because he made a lovely neat tunnel  in the compost heap directly down to the buried bokashi waste. Grrrr!!!!

I already had these little organza bags, but if I had to make them, I would have used some tuille from my craft supplies. So when I get time, I plan to empty out the store cupboard, clean the shelves down and space these bags of Bay around....I have heard that Cockroaches don't like Bay....Hope it works...
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Needing Yoghurt again...I put some milk in the crockpot while preparing tea last night....It always amazes me that I can wake in the morning to find yoghurt ready to be drained....When ever I have a huge amount of homemade yoghurt in the fridge..I get more creative in the kitchen, thinking of different ways to use it...I'm not buying sour cream any more...I used this yohurt in my Turkey Stroganoff tonight and all plates were licked clean...well, you know what I mean.

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Following on from yesterdays baking...Last night,  after tea, I wrapped all the cakes to go in the freezer. These cakes I like to call Grab n Go Cakes...DS19 and Hubby can grab one out of the freezer to go with their lunch for work....DS16 can grab one to go with his lunch for school, and even Nanna takes one and it is defrosted by the time she has her first break at Bingo.

Grab n Go Cakes ready for the freezer

You know they are good, when DS16 comes running in after school asking..."Where are the cakes Mum?, they were so good, I want them again tomorrow."  He was most disappointed when he found out nearly all of them went in the freezer.
Some children get lollies as treats...some get McDonalds or Pizza as a treat...I have noticed on some blogs I have been reading lately...that people are listing off the wonderful things they do and the meals they cook from scratch. Which is all good, yes, we have some very clever cooks out there, but when I read that 'they' sometimes let the kids have a treat, by taking them to McDonald's....well....Is it really a treat????
I mean, isn't the true treat the effort you go to when you make a lovely home cooked meal, or a yummy dessert....and the quality, don't get me started on all the horrible chemical and preservatives you are avoiding for them......Isn't all that the real treat?  What about tending to a dough for a few hours, making a lovely bread, only to have it devoured with one meal?  You can't get any better treat than that....You don't get the lovely aroma's from store bought foods, like you do from a home-cooked recipe.

My boys know a treat when they smell one...."You can smell that cooking way out in the street mum"...."All the neighbours will be jealous".   And hubby comes in from work, saying, "I hope that smell is coming from our house...it's really good, hope it's for tea".

Sorry it's been such a long post today, and here I thought I had nothing to write about...lol .

I would love to hear what you think about these 'treats'...

If you have any other suggestions on how to get rid of these bugs, let me know...

Other readers will want to know too....so leave your ideas in the comments and I will reply shortly.

Camembert, Rendering, Preserving Lemons & Dishcloths

Hi Geoff, Hi Debbie, welcome to both of you....

Feel free to look around, and I would love some feedback......

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Wrapping the Camembert.

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I checked out the Camembert, and yep, It was ready to wrap...I first wrapped it in a grease proof like paper, and then wrapped it in foil....Back into the cheese-cave with both, for just a few weeks...as hubby prefers it really young...He says "If you leave it too long,  it just tastes like dirt."  Well, I kind of agree with him, after tasting the last one while it was young....it was really really nice....I guess that's another plus for making your own cheese, you can stop the maturation, when the cheese is the taste you want. 

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Finishing off the 

fat rendering 

from yesterday.

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I also finished off the fat rendering, but I still have to pack it away in the freezer..

This morning, the fat had set in the larger pan....

I scooped out the clean fat into a smaller pan and was left with a layer of dirty fat and water....

This I strained and poured into a small pan. 

All the leftover waste goes into a bread bag, 

and into the freezer until rubbish night. 

 Once I had just clean fat, I rendered it some more, adding water again...

I let this reduce to get rid of most of the added water.

 Then poured the oil into the containers as shown.

I poured it out while each container was on the scales...

that way each lump of fat will be easier to calculate when weighing it for soap. 

Once frozen, I will remove the containers and store each blob of fat

 in a freezer bag. That way I get all my containers back too.

I found I only needed 1 jug of boiling water to clean up the yucky oily greasy pot.

If you need to clean a pot like this..

Pour 1 kettle of boiling water around the inside walls of the pot.

Place the lid on and leave to melt down the greasy mess. 

Then pour the now warm water over a sieve. 

This will catch any bits left behind from the original fat.

Once empty, I rubbed the whole pot with baking soda...and used a soapy dishcloth to wipe it down. 

rinse well, and dry with a tea-towel.  

Too easy!!!!

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Preserving Lemons -

another ingredient

to add to your stockpile.

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While browsing through some of my old recipes...

I found a recipe for Preserved Lemons.

 I haven't used these in cooking since I was in a unit in Wangaratta.

Wow, that was way to many years ago to mention...lol.

So I decided to preserve some lemons myself. 

When lemons are in abundance like they are now (in the shops anyway) 

it's a good idea to stock up and add them to your stockpile by preserving them. 

Especially if you have a lemon tree.

I picked these up for $2 a kilo, while just a few weeks ago, they were $8 per kilo.

Select a glass jar with a secure lid...

preferably not a steel lid, as the heavy salt may react with it. 

Wash your lemons well, I used warm soapy water. 

My soap that I make.

You can see the brush in the water, 

I rubbed the lemons on the brush to remove any blemishes or marks....

Rinse well, in a water bath with half a cup of vinegar. 

This will neutralise any soap residue left on the lemons. 

Soapy                               Rinsed                    Draining

Spices used were Bay, Cinnamon, Star Anise, Cloves & Peppercorns. 

I found it easier to decant your spices onto a plate, 

as your fingers are going to get covered in lemon juice and salt. 

This way you are not contaminating your spice jars. 

 Cut the ends off each lemon, and cut into quarters,

 but don't cut all the way through the other end. 

Fill each lemon with salt, 

I just used cooking salt, it's going to dissolve anyway. 

Pack the jar tightly, and add spices as you go. 

Fill smaller gaps with quarters. Add salt and spices as you go.

 Here is a photo of the jars of lemons, just before I filled them with lemon juice

You can see that the salt is already drawing the juice out of the lemons...

Me being the frugal one...I also made a smaller jar using all the cut ends...

I LOVE NO WASTE!!!

When using preserved lemon in a recipe: 

Select a piece of lemon from the jar

Rinse well with fresh water

Remove the flesh from the rind

Discard the flesh, and use the rind

Cut into fine strips or refer to your recipe.

So why not preserve the ends too...that's the bit you use.

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On to my fourth dishcloth

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I am still using up all the smaller leftover cottons from Mum....

she crochet's around face-washers and tea-towels

and has had a few bits left over.

so far my cotton dishcloths have cost nothing. 

I am using the one on the left and the centre one.

I have decided to keep on knitting

I may even use them for Christmas gifts.

Mum says she can see my confidence has grown...

she see's me taking my eye off the needles while talking to her....

I didn't even know I was NOT watching all the time.

Hope you all had a great day...

Mine has been a productive and busy one again. 

I guess soap is next...seeing I have all this free oil...

I even have the local chip shop saving Cotton Seed Oil for me

I picked up 4 litres off him the other day to make soap.

Thanks Paul.

If you like what you see, or would like to ask a question, 

please don't hesitate. Drop me a comment, and I will get back to you.