Baking adventures

Last week I decided I'd try a recipe from my breadmaker book that I've been meaning to try for ages... Anchoy and Sun Dried Tomato Loaf.  I didn't have any anchovies but I did have a tin of olives stuffed with anchovies just asking to be used up so I went with those instead.  :o)  The olives went in the dough mix but the tomatoes had to be chopped and put in the little compartment thingie in the bread maker to be dropped into the mix at a later point in the process.  All was going well until, after the tomatoes had dropped in, I could smell burning and upon investigation I discovered that goodly portion of the tomatoes had missed the pan and had settled on the element happily smoking themselves!  In order to divert a crisis I whipped the bread pan out quickly removed the offending tomatoes and shoved the bread back in to take it's chance!  The resulting loaf didn't look super promising with it's crater top...

...but happily inside all was fine and dandy:

It was a pleasant loaf, not overtly tomatoey or olivey or anchovy ish.  :o)

Other baking adventures included a birthday cake for my husband which my daughter and I had a great laugh decorating late one evening after rehearsal!  She chose a hedgehog (my husband is into wildlife) and here is our finished creation...

Her eyes are currants and her nose and mouth are sculpted from dried prumes!  Lol  The baby hedgehog minus chocolate buttons was mine since I don't eat chocolate.  :oD  It won't win any prizes for professional cake making but it was great fun to do and much appreciated by the birthday boy.  :o)

Use It Up Challenge Week 3 Review

Well, the week has been easier than I suspected!  I had forgotten I was away for a couple of days and my daughter took on the reins without any trouble.  :o) 

This week's grocery spend amounted to £10.66 which comprised:

• milk  £3.81
• plain flour 69p
• cereal £2.01
• cheese £4.15

Over the last three weeks I have spent a total of £32.35 out of what would have been my usual budget of £180 (£60 per week) and I'm pretty pleased with that!  :o) 

Entering the last week of january I'm fairly happy with my challenge antics although I think I could be more inventive and have tried more new recipes and I will endeavour to do more of that this week.  :o)  This morning I made some beautifully smooooooth pumpkin and chestnut soup and there's some pumpkin to spare which I will use this evening with dinner.  I forgot to take pics but I made arrowroot biscuits this week which used up the aging tub of arrowroot skulking in the pantry, unusual texture but great for dunking!  ;o)

This week I dug out my silicone doughnut pan to have a crack at some doughnuts for pudding one evening.  I haven't used it for ages and there was a good degree of rummaging about to find the recipe that came with the pan! 

In terms of the finished articles being doughnut like in appearance it was a bit of a shambles but they tasted good and were marginally healthier than traditional doughnuts, being baked rather than fried.

Use It Up Challenge Day 6

I've spent a goodly portion of today in the kitchen.  :o)

Last night I put some beans in to soak overnight to make Boston Baked Beans, a much loved recipe from a Rose Elliot cook book.  The original recipe is cooked in the oven but I like to do them in the slow cooker.

The recipe uses haricot beans, the usual bean for baked beans, but I started with butter beans, black eye beans, red kidney beans, black beans and cannellini beans.

Post soaking hence the whiter beans looking purple!

I adjusted the recipe slightly as I had no dry mustard so I made them smoky beans by using smoked paprika and also added a splosh of apple juice as I had it to hand and thought more liquid was needed!


Yum!

On the UIUC front I've crossed a few items off my list today as well.  :o)  The list is in this post.


Ginger destined for the Treacle Ginger Cake.

 I've been wanting to make a Treacle Ginger Cake since Christmas and finally got around to it today!  It's a Nigel Slater (I think!) recipe from an old Sainsburys magazine. It involves black treacle, dark muscovado sugar and stem ginger and is just delicious! Even better is that it improves with age, I've put half of it in the freezer.  :o)  I've made it a few times before but for some reason this time it hasn't turned out as dark as usual.  I'm not sure why, possibly the sugar wasn't as dark as usual?  No matter though as it tastes as good as ever!  :o)   

I also made a Ploughman's Loaf in my breadmaker.  The recipe is from the booklet that came with the breadmaker and uses apple juice and Branston pickle.  Having no Branston but plenty of chutney I substituted caramelised onion chutney instead of the pickle.  :o)  Haven't had a taste test yet but it's quite a mountainous loaf!  Lol

For dinner this evening we had home made pizza, using scone dough, with potato and sweet potato wedges.  The pizza was a bit of a cheese feast jobbie as I used up a variety of small pieces of cheese from Christmas! 

All in all a good foodie day!  :o) 

   

The Great Use It Up Challenge 2012

As briefly mentioned in the last post I have started on my usual January using stuff up mission.  ;o)  For the uninitiated (not that I think there are crowds of you scratching your heads over this!), the challenge amounts to trying to use up what I have in the pantry, freezer and fridge without shopping for anything other than essentials.  My definition of essentials is milk, butter, cheese, fruit and veg to start with.  As I progress through the month this list grows obviously.  Reasons for doing this?  Well....

• Money.  I was in the lovely position of being able to clear my massive overdraft and credit card debt in October 2011 but I'm by no means out of the financial woods skipping through the meadow yet!  I have to stick with my budget now!  My current weekly food budget is £60.  For the duration of the challenge I am planning on putting the difference between what I spend and my usual budget into our savings account.
• Pantry spring clean.  I will be conducting a major spring clean of my pantry and the less I have to take out and put back for that process the better!
• Cooking from scratch.  I love cooking from scratch but I sometimes slip into bad habits and the back end of last year fell into that category.  I want to get back to cooking more from scratch and trying new recipes and having to use up what I have always makes me cook more creatively.  :o)
• Blogging.  Any excuse to share what may or may not be interesting to anyone other than me!  Lol
• The feel good factor.  There's nothing like knowing I'm being thrifty and creative.  :o)

So, just what do I have to use up?  Brace yourself, it's a pretty long list!

Pantry

(Anything in blue has been bought since the challenge started.)
Ackee, tinned

Apricots, tinned

Arrowroot

Beer, 1 small bottle

Black eye beans, dried

Baked beans x 2 x1

Banana chutney

Beluga lentils, dried

Black beans, dried

Black beans, tinned

Black treacle

Bread flour

Bread flour

Breadsticks

Brown linseeds

Butter beans, dried

Cake decorations, too many to list

Cannelleni beans, dried

Cannelloni

Caster sugar

Cereal

Champagne

Chestnut puree x 3 x2

Chocolate cake covering, 1 1/2 bars

Chopped tomatoes, tinned

Chopped tomatoes with basil, carton

Cider vinegar

Cocktail cherries

Cocktail onions

Cocoa powder

Cornflour

Cous cous

Crab apple jelly x 4

Crackers, variety of opened packets of crackers

Cream crackers

Creamed coconut, sachet x 3

Crisps, variety of individual bags

Crunchy peanut butter

Crystallised ginger

Currants

Dark brown sugar

Dates x 2

Demerara sugar

Easy cook long grain rice

Evaporated milk large x 2 x 1

Evaporated milk, small

Extra virgin olive oil

Gelatine

Glace cherries

Golden syrup

Gram flour

Green split peas, dried

Grenadine

Hazelnuts, unshelled

Herbs and spices, too numerous to list

Honey

Hot chocolate

Icing, ready made coloured

Icing sugar

Instant coffee

Japanese rice crackers

Jelly x 3 x 2 x1

Kirsch

Large cous cous

Light brown sugar

Long grain rice

Macaroni

Malt extract

Malt vinegar

Marmalade vodka

Marmalade x 2

Marzipan

Meringue nests

Mincemeat

Mixed bean salad

Mixed nuts

Mixed seeds

Nakd bars x 4 x3

Nori

Oatbran x 2

Oats

Olives with anchovy stuffing

One cup teabags

Onions

Onions
OO pasta flour

Part baked rolls

Pasta reindeers

Pasta twists x 3 x 2 x1

Pearl barley

Piccalilli

Pineapple

Pistachios

Plain flour

Plain noodles

Plum chutney

Plum tomatoes

Polenta, ready made x 2

Porcini mushrooms, dried

Port

Potatoes

Potatoes

Pringles, 1/2 tube

Pudding rice

Pumpkin

Red kidney beans, dried

Red kidney beans, tinned

Red lentils

Redcurrant chutney x 3

Rhubarb chutney x 4

Rice pudding, tinned

Roasted savoury seed mix

Self raising flour

Self raising flour
Semolina?

Seri kaya, tinned

Sesame halva x 2

Sesame oil

Sesame seeds

Sloe vodka

Stock cubes

Soy sauce

Suet

Sugar cubes

Sultanas

Sweet potatoes

Teabags

Tinned ham

Tomato ketchup

Tuc

Tuna x 3

Walnuts

Wheatgerm

Whole chestnuts x 3 x2

Wholegrain spelt flour

Wine, home made

Xanthan gum

Yellow split peas, dried
 
Freezer
 
(Items in blue have been made and added to the freezer since the challenge started)

Baguette

Baked beans x 3 x 2 

Bananas, 2

Beef mince

Black beans, cooked

Blackcurrants

Breadcrumbs

Carob truffle mix

Cheese sauce

Cherry ice cream

Chicken giblets

Chicken legs, cooked

Chicken legs, raw

Chicken liver pate

Chicken livers

Chicken stock x 3 x2

Chocolate ice cream

Cooked chicken wings

Filo pastry, 2 packs

Fishfingers 2 x 10 1 x 10

Flat bread

Gingerbread stuffing

Gooseberries

Leeks

Lentil loaf, 2 slices x 2

Lemon juice?

Liver cake (dogs!)

Mincemeat brownie

Mini mince pies

Muffins

Muffins, 2 x 4 1 x 4

Naan, 2 x 2

Paneer

Peas

Potato cakes, 6

Puff pastry

Redcurrants x 3

Seeded loaf

Shortcrust pastry, tiny bit!

Sloes

Soya beans

Spinach

Three cheese strata, 3 small portions

Tomato sauce

Treacle ginger cake

Vanilla ice cream

Veg curry

Veg soup

Veg stew

Vegetarian sausage and bean casserole x 2 x1

White wine, 2 small pots

Whole trout x 2

I made these lists earlier this week so have excluded some items already.  I will score through items as I use them.  I have been using up stuff from the fridge too but I didn't make a list until today....

Fridge

(Items in blue have been made or bought since the challenge began)

Apple juice

Aubergine

Balsamic vinegar

Barbecue sauce

Beetroot, fresh

Boar pate

Brown sauce

Butter icing

Butter, salted

Butter, unsalted

Butternut squash
Caramelised onion chutney

Carrots

Carrots

Celeriac

Celery

Cheddar

Cheese – smallish lumps of Camembert, Brie, Cheddar, Gruyere, Cheddar with apple cider chutney, Mozzarella, Cheddar with caramelised onion and Drunken Goat,

Cherry jam

Chocolate squirty cream

Cottage cheese x 2

Cream, double

Cream, extra thick with Cherry Marnier

Cream, single

Croissant dough

Cucumber

Dill pickles

Dried onions

Feta cheese

Greek yoghurt


Ham

Hoisin sauce

Lemons, 3

Mango chutney

Margarine

Marmalade

Mayonnaise

Milk

Milk

Mint syrup

Mixed leaf salad pack

Mushrooms

Orange

Parsnips

Parsnips

Pickled beetroot

Pickled onions

Pickled red cabbage

Raspberry jam

Red onion relish

Redcurrant chutney

Redcurrant jelly

Redcurrant vinegar

Rhubarb relish

Root ginger

Salad cream

Soy sauce

Spring onion

Sun dried tomato pesto

Sun dried tomatoes in oil

Swede

Sweet tomato and chilli chutney

Tomatoes
 
So, barring a few odd things I may have missed and stuff lurking elsewhere other than in the pantry, freezer and fridge, there you have it!  Quite interesting reading, well for me anyway!  I seem to have a chutney fetish!  Lol  So, down to business, I will be endeavouring to use as much of what I have with minimal spending, watch this space for updates!  If you've made it this far.... bloody well done you!  Lol

Back to some foodie blogging!

Yay, here I am reclaiming my foodie blog after a hiatus of some months.  ;o)  No apologies, life just overtook me on this particular front!

A quick romp through my festive cooking adventures to start!  This year I resolutely stuck with my food budget for over the Christmas period. (yeah, I know, I was somewhat smug!  lol)  That meant I did alot more baking than in recent years which can only be good in my eyes!  I didn't buy any mince pies at all although sadly I didn't get around to making my own mincemeat but hey ho.  I spent Christmas Day at my parents so no Christmas lunch cooking for me, booooo!  I did however entertain on Boxing Day and made a big puffy pastried chicken pie followed by Jamie Oliver's artic roll....

I really enjoyed making this, it was aaaaaaaages since I'd made a swiss roll and it was fun rolling it up with raspberry jam, chocolate and vanilla ice creams oozing out!  I dispensed with the crushed Crunchie, of course, but I don't think that detracted from the flavour at all.  :o) 

On New Year's Eve we rolled out the Raclette as is now traditional! 

I must search out some more specific Raclette recipes though.

I have now embarked on my annual New Year activity of using up what I have instead of shopping for more.  :o)  A blog post specifically about this challenge coming up....

It's good to be back!