quick menu post

For the first time in ages I have a menu planned on a Monday so I thought I'd shock everyone and post it.!

This weeks gluten free menu swap is hosted by Celiac Family who chose celery. I don't have any recipes based specifically on it but there will be some in the leek and potato soup and I might possibly do braised celery later in the week as a side dish because Noddles wants to try it cooked.

Monday - Leek and Potato soup with cheese scones
(there are both leeks and potatoes left on the new allotment which are still edible so I think there may be a lot of recipes including them the next few weeks!)

Tuesday - Shrove Tuesday so there can only be one dish - PANCAKES !!

Wednesday - spare ribs and rice

Thursday - Pasta and sauce

Friday - Beef stew

Saturday - Treestump's third birthday so birthday picnic/tea and of course cake !

Sunday - Roast pork and all the trimmings.

Baking - cheese scones, birthday cake or cakes  might do decorated cupcakes. some sort of bread.

One thing I do need to do is sort out something automatic that I like for breakfast, I'm trying to get out to the allotment when I drop Noodles to school but need to have eaten before I go out and having re-tried bread using Xanth gum last week it definitely does me no good and makes it much harder to get going in the mornings so I either need to make bread or something similar so I always have some available or find something else I will happily grab and run as I have to be in the mood for cereal, that said I might try making my own granola as that is one I do generally like but is SO expensive to get the couple of types that are gluten free here.

Menu - week starting 29th Nov 2010

This week's gluten free menu swap is hosted by Gluten Free Goodness and they picked sweet potatoes as the ingredient of the week. I really like sweet potatoes but they aren't a desperately common veg here as they are too tender to grow in our climate without extra heat, however if I get time I may well pop into the market where there are normally some being sold and sometimes more than one variety of similar root veg as we have a reasonable sized African community here.

I have been very busy recently as I signed up to train as a climate change champion or as it should be called a climate change awareness champion as I have no plans to champion climate change :)  This takes a day out a week plus homework and I'm busy doing all the normal things as well as trying to blitz our house so we can host a big family get together at Christmas.

I also have a new toy!  I have final succumbed to all the good reviews on the various preserving groups I'm on and got an Excalibur dehydrator and it is everything people say! I love it. I'm still in the trying things out stage but I am in awe of those people who run more than one of these things at a time, it takes a lot of prep to fill all 9 trays!  I have done several different types of apples friends have given me and it is interesting to see how the flavours differ both between apples and between the fresh and dried of the same apple. 

The Boys think fruit leathers particular apple/pear or banana are fantastic !

I have also been making a few preserves including one called compost jelly from the River Cottage Preserves book which is made from the peeling and cores of the apples I've dried along with orange skins from oranges I juiced !  Very nice it is as well, though my first batch hasn't set as well as I'd like so I'm trying to decide between using it as a syrup or reboiling to thicken it up !

On to the menu for the week.

Monday - lamb chops, peas, baked potatoes served with garlic egg flans from Gluten Free girl and Chef (watch here for a review later this week)

Tuesday - Class day unless it is called off because of the snow currently falling! So pasta and sauce (nice and simple probably just a pre-made tomato and basil sauce)

Wednesday - Bean casserole.

Thursday - I'm at a low carbon conference all day so again something simple - tomato and eggs

Friday -  Fish pie  (mixed fish and sweetcorn in a while sauce topped with mashed potato and oven baked)                                       
Baking - Thinking of trying a treacle tart but replacing the golden syrup with compost jelly syrup.

Autumn and sunshine

Mixed apple jelly

Autumn is definitely here, the trees are turning fantastic colours and starting to drop leaves in droves which is several weeks earlier than last year when I began to think the leaves would just gradually die on the trees and not give us any show at all ! We had a very wet and prolonged spring this year and so the summer growing season has seems very short. However the last few days have included some really quite hot spells so the sunshine isn't quite over yet !

I hope to use the next few weeks to get the allotment up to speed so come the spring we don't need to be doing lots prep to start planting with our clay soil we need to prepare in advance as it's to sticky to work when very wet!

The slugs eat all the winter brassicas I tried to plant but I have shallots, onions and garlic to put in to replace them and some broad beans and peas which can over winter as well. Plus various things that can be started in the greenhouse and coldframes.

For now though it is a season of using up as many apples as I can get for free ! I don't have apple trees that give me fruit as yet but several people I know do and I also know several places they grow on waste land so I really need to get out and grab some more while they are still available.

I do have some already which we have been eating fresh and I have made lovely apple jelly as you can see in the photo above. I have a few more jars but that was as many as I was risking carry outside so I could show you to glow through them! It is mixed apple jelly because it has four different types of apple in it including the few crab apples from our tree. I basically used all the apples that didn't look like they would last long plus some cooking apples.

This weeks theme from the celiac family blog for the gluten free menu swap is potatoes, something I will definitely use this week. We are still digging them from the allotment though we need to get the last ones up and stored before the ground gets to damp and cold.

So the menu

Monday - As I didn't do it last week. Braised Lamp shoulder with greens and Anya potatoes straight from the ground (very nice they were to)

Tuesday - Not sure Mum is coming to visit so it depends what we end up doing.

Wednesday -Potato bake. Potatoes layered with tomatoes (from our greenhouse) and covered in a egg and milk mix with a little cheese.

Thursday - Rice and Stuff. Basically our version of something similar to fried rice, rice with lots of bits added to it to make a one pot meal.

Friday -Dosas or salmon and veg if I fail to make the Dosa

Baking - Pear and raisin muffins, cheese scones.
Fermenting - I want to have a go at Dosas which includes fermenting the mix first. Make Sauerkraut and start a batch of ginger beer.  Can you tell I've finally got the book Wild Fermentation which I've been considering for ages :)  All these things I was planning to try anyway but it's just that extra push to do so.

October Unprocessed and this weeks menu.

Carrie over at Ginger Lemon Girl is joining in the October Unprocessed challenge and committing to at least one unprocessed meal a day. The challenge originates from Eating Rules who defined unprocessed as
"Unprocessed food is any food that could be made by a person with reasonable skill in a home kitchen with readily available, whole-food ingredients."

Which doesn't mean you have to make everything from scratch but that everything you do eat should be possible to make in a home kitchen so no weird chemistry lab ingredients. So I will still buy things like sausage and pasta which I can make but can't be bothered when others can do it better for me!

The original challenge is to eat unprocessed for the whole month, now we don't eat that many processed foods anyway but I'm still not sure I can do none at all for a month or at least I'm not sure my boys would want to however committing to one meal a day seems very possible so that's what I'm going to do as well as taking a good look at what we all eat and if we can cut back on the bad and increase the good.

The other thing I want to concentrate on is different, quick, easy and not to brain taxing things for breakfast. I'm trying to stay away from the pre-made bread I still have a stash of as much as possible and currently cereal isn't appealing but I need something I can make with little enough effort I get round to it before lunch time ! Any suggestions very welcome.

So onto the menu for the week.  This weeks Gluten free menu swap is hosted by Celiacs in the House who has chosen brussels sprouts. These veg get a very split reaction in our house, some of us love them, others hate them. I sit rather in the middle, I don't hate them but I don't go out of my way to get them either. My attempts at growing them failed due to me not getting round to planting the baby plants out.. oh well next year ! We haven't had any in the veg box as yet either so any dishes involving them will have to wait a bit I'm afraid.

Monday - by special request fish and chips ie battered fish and chips, chipshop style, very much made from scratch.

Tuesday - Butternut squash risotto.

Wednesday - Sausage and mash with onion gravy, a good old British classic. The sausages are bought in but made with basic ingredients.

Thursday - pasta bake

Friday  - Braised Lamb shoulder, served with green veg and oven roast root veg.

Baking - cheese biscuits, some muffins for breakfast and lunch boxes
Processing - lots of free apples !  Apple butter, apple jelly (using the few crab apples from our tree and some cookers), dried apple rings and apple beer.

Menu - 20th to 25th Sept 2010 and birthdays

As you will see from the tickertape at the top of my blog Noddles was seven a month ago but over here that is at the same time as the August bank holiday which is one of our main national holidays and we have learnt his friends all tend to be away so we schedule his party for after school gets back. Therefore last weekend we had a football party !

 The cake was iced by Noddles himself with a little help and we have a football game between the girls and the boys with a adult ref ! For those americans in the audience that is real football or what you call soccer :)

For the cake I used this easy vanilla cake from BBC good food and just subbed in a gluten free flour mix, I didn't even add any Xanth gum or similar and it was great. Good texture and quite moist. Has lasted well too though Treestump feels the way to eat it is to lick the icing and jam off it and then try and pass off the actual cake to someone else !

 Blowing out the candles.. which made him jump as the additional ones were sparkler candles but they didn't really get going till he tried to blow them!

Today in contrast is my birthday which I am spending quietly at home waiting impatiently for my Kindle which I have treated myself with to turn up.. trouble is it isn't due to be delivered for a week or so yet which is a down side of buying the new hot product !

Now the next question is do I spend the rest of my birthday money on a dehydrator?

Anyway on to the menu which is late this week.
Oh I should also mention it is British Food fortnight so I may possibly have a few extra traditional British dishes this week such as Chip shop fish and chips and dumplings :)

Monday - boys had chicken dippers, smiley faces and peas, I had Dietary Specials sausage rolls instead of chicken dippers. I know not a great meal but the boys love chicken dippers !

Tuesday -Home made chip shop style Fish and chips cos I love then and it's my birthday :) Again very unhealthy but yar boo to that !

Wednesday - cauliflower cheese (which generally involves more vegs than just cauliflower)

Thursday - Chicken noodle soup

Friday - Nice big veg and bean stew - exact ingredients to be decided later ! Served with dumplings.

Baking - cheese scones and I am really tempted to try and make squashed fly biscuits otherwise known as Garibaldi biscuits.

Weekly menu - 6th Sept - 10th Sept

Beach huts at Hengistbury Head.

Taken on summer holiday.

This weeks Gluten Free Menu swap is being hosted over at Gluten Free Smiles who has chosen peaches as this weeks ingredient. As you will see below we tried a new dish last week using peaches and it was good enough to add to my list of dishes to do again. There are also reasonable priced fresh peaches available currently, possibly not actually cheap but they don't actually grow here or at least not outside walled gardens and the occasional other sheltered private house. If anyone grows them for sale in the UK I've never come across them. As a result they aren't something we eat much fresh but we do treat ourselves to a few punnets over the course of the season or nectarines which in some ways I like even more which we almost always eat straight or cut up with berries and cream. As a result we normally only cook with tinned peaches.

So on to the menu
Firstly what we actually had last week.
Monday  using up leftover mince
Tuesday - Lamb chops
 Wednesday -  Pork with peaches and black bean salsa, serve with rice. Quite liked this would do it again. Many people said they used a full tin of black beans and next time I probably will to.
Thursday - Sausage and potato wedges
Friday - Battered fish and boiled new potatoes from the allotment.  Slightly healthier than chips but spoilt but using the remaining batter to do battered mushrooms later that evening !

Rather more meat on there than I like to plan so this week is going to try and balance that out.

Monday - Beef stew (OK the balancing comes later in the week the beef needs using up I am actually planning to cook that Sunday night to eat Monday)

Tuesday - Potato bake (potatoes, egg, milk, onion, possibly a bit of bacon baked in the oven) served with greens.

Wednesday - Salmon stir-fry with noodles

Thursday - Tomato and eggs.

Friday - out and about all day so it will be a grab and run day. I will try and bake some easy to eat bits and pieces in advance.




Baking - cheese biscuits, apple muffins, banana bread.

Weekly menu -30th Aug - 3rd Sept 2010

With luck my run of illness has finished and all  of a sudden we are nearly at the end of the school holidays !  I'm going to make a concerted effort to get back into some semblance of organisation and menu planning very much helps with that so here goes.

Cheryl from Gluten Free Goodness is hosting the menu swap this week and has picked water melon. This isn't something that we eat much of as it doesn't really grow here but when we do get one it always goes down well.

So the plan this week is as follows, it is most quite easy and very British dishes this week. The weather is not brilliant of this time of year and as the evenings get darker I naturally turn to such dishes.

Monday (a Bank Holiday here) - using up leftover mince, probably served simply with new potatoes straight from the allotment and some other veg.

Tuesday - battered fish and chips.. I haven't had battered fish for ages and fish and chips is a British past-time but I can't go to the fish and chip shop like most people.

Wednesday - Trying this recipe for Pork with peaches and black bean salsa, serve with rice.

Thursday -  Veggy soup with cheese scones

Friday - Toad in the hole - sausages in Yorkshire pudding batter.

Weekly menu - 29th June 2010

 We are still trying to use up the contents of the freezer and the weather here in the UK has been pretty warm so to much cooking has not been high on the agenda. I have a big stash of gluten free bread rolls I got cheap so have been to a large extent been living on salad sandwiches with lots of mustard and cress which I have a really like of currently. I'm waiting on a bunch of seeds to turn up so I can try a whole range of micro salad which is really just the same as mustard and cress just different plants, basically sprouts allowed to grow so they have leaves as well.

This weeks ingredient for the gluten free menu swap was picked by Celiacs in the House and is cabbage. I must admit we mostly eat cabbage in the winter but I do like it cut up thin and fried with a bit of sugar in other words what Chinese takeaways here call crispy fried seaweed ! The recipe she has posted sounds very good as well and I may have to try more things like stuffed cabbage it sounds like a good plan to me.

menu

Monday - roast chicken with boiled new potatoes direct from the allotment (the potatoes not the chicken, we haven't started keeping chickens yet though I would like to.)

Tuesday - Rice or pasta with chicken from Monday.

Wednesday - Hotdog sausages stuffed with cheese and wrapped in bacon served with creamed savoy cabbage from the IKEA a recipe a day cook book.

Thursday -see what is left to eat up and base something on that.

Friday - Tomato and Eggs.

Weekly menu swap starting again

 A small but very fragrant posy from the allotment

It's been ages since I posted a weekly menu or participated in the Gluten Free Menu swap and while our food planning is better than it was I have noticed we are slipping a bit again on using things up at the right time and so on and so I am going to start again !

This weeks host is Gluten Free Goodness and she picked raspberries which we love. The ones on the allotment are just starting to colour so we might have a few this week if we get them before the birds or finally finish the fruit cage so we can cover them properly! It is very nearly done now.

I'm working through our freezer at the moment to clear it out so a) we eat the things that we never get round to and b) it can have a proper clean, these things need doing every now and then after all.
As a result the menu is based mostly on that and rather more meat based than I would normally do  as I try to do several vegetarian or very meal light meals every week but most of what we have left in the freezer to eat is meat now.

Monday - Pasta and mince

Tuesday - Omelets

Wednesday - Beef stew

Thursday - Fish pie

Friday - Roast Chicken with vegetable terrine

Weekly menu - Feb 8th 2010

This week's gluten free roundup is being done by Angela's Kitchen and she has chosen garlic as an ingredient. We love garlic and use it a huge amount. I recently made some garlic confit following the instructions from Kate the Bake and it's fabulous and really nice to have to hand, the garlicky olive oil it is in is good too!

Organizing Junkie also have a huge round up of all sorts of menu which is well worth checking out.

I thought you never see me and for once i have a photograph I like so this week I'd brave it and put a photograph of myself up here for all to see!

So now you know what I look like!

So back to food after that brief interlude. While I generally prefer home cooked gluten free bread and so forth the pre-made stuff is useful and Dietary Specials is a very good brand over here so when I was told that Approved Food had a bunch of their stuff on their site this morning I had to put in an order ! Approved Food is a company who specifies in short and pass date food, by past date they mean past the best by date which is very different to the use by date.. the past by date is the date after which it might start to deteriorate and is used on longer life products, in reality they are often fine months after that date. Use by is on short use foods like fresh meat and so on and after that date it can be dangerous to eat the food as it will be going off. So anyway I am now waiting on a order of really quite a lot of gluten free bread products as they were selling them for about 1/12th the normal price! Cheap enough I will not feel the least bit guilty making breadcrumbs and bread and butter pudding if I feel like it, where as normally I ration it out to myself as it is rather expensive.

Right on to the menu. I have just done a inventory of the cupboards and need to get that written up and check what we do and don't have so this may well change as I do that as I always earmark some things to be used up when I do such an exercise but it's useful to have a starting point at least.

Monday - stir- fried vegs and rice with deep fried sweet potato and parsnip sticks.

Tuesday - Barbequed spare ribs with potato wedges

Wednesday - Birthday choice as it's Jon's birthday.. probably something simple like Steak knowing him!

Thursday - Daring Cooks challenge recipe which I failed to do fully last week.

Friday - Some sort of fish dish not sure what yet but we have several pieces of fish in the freezer that need eating up.

Weekly menu - Feb 1st 2010

This weeks ingredient, picked by Heather at Celiac Family  is chocolate.. oh what a hardship :)  We all love chocolate, well nearly all but there always has to be one doesn't there? All the more for the rest of us.

Probably a rather heavy potato week this week but it's that time of year and we are all under the weather with colds so simple, easy favourites are the order of the day.

This weeks menu is

Monday - Homemade lamb burgers and potato wedges

Tuesday - potato bake.

Wensday - Daring Cooks challenge dish (sorry can't say what till later)

Thursday - After school visit from a class mate.. they both pestered me and him mum all last week!! Probably something simple like fish fingers or pasta with cheese sauce particularly as he's muslim so no meat unless it's Halal and so on.

Friday - sausage and mash

Baking - Banana muffins, potato cakes, biscuits of some sort.

Gluten Free Menu Swap - Parsnips

I'm hosting the Gluten Free Menu Swap this week and I chose Parsnips as my ingredient.

We love parsnips here, often referred to in our house as 'snips though I have found they are one of those veg you either love or hate. They are one of those vegs that really symbolise winter food for us and one that we await with anticipation. Parsnips are a bit like a carrot but much bigger and a creamy white colour. They are quite sweet and roast wonderfully. We always have them when we have a roast dinner along with roast potatoes. Parsnips are a good source of vitamins and very versatile, our favourites apart from roast include Curried Parsnip soup and parsnip crisps.. They also make a great mash and we sometimes mix them with carrot for a mix veg mash. Adding them to a stew or soup gives it a lovely mellow sweetness.

They take a long time to grow and they benefit form frost before they are harvested as that makes them sweeter. The seed goes off very quickly so they are one of the few vegs it is very sensible to get new seed for each year. This year I hope to have more luck growing them than last time when none came up and I plan to try a couple of different sowing dates to see what if any difference that makes .

You can find some more recipes here at Vegbox-recipes..

I did a dinner party for Tom's birthday and totally forgot to take pictures.. far too busy cooking  but the menu was as follows.

Starters - Balsamic roasted red peppers, and spiced roast corgettes, cream cheese stuffed battered mushrooms.

Soup - French Onion or Roast Butternut.

Main - Pork and apple Terrine or Beetroot Gnocchi  served with a choice of roast potatoes, pue lentils, Waldron salad, green salad and a choice of chutneys and pickles.

Desert - banana curd crème brulee, maroons, cupcakes and a chocolate heart cake (the last two were gluten as they were supplied by others)

Menu of the week.

Monday - liver and onions or sausage meat patties with potato and parsnip wedges, leeks in cream sauce and carrots. (only some of us will eat liver)

Tuesday - Veg Pakoras - leek and/or cabbage, chickpea curry of some sort.

Wednesday - Curried Parsnip soup and cheese scones

Thursday - Stew and dumplings.

Friday - Tomato and Egg

Baking and Batch cooking. -we need some biscuits and similar, possibly some bread.

Other menus

Manda of Asparagus Thin has been updating her blog look and very nice it is too. She loves parsnips too and had the great suggestion of parsnip muffins.. that is so on my list of things to try now!

Over at Gluten Free is Life parsnips will be something new if they try them. Hope they do as I think they are fantastic, apparently she is thinking of adding them to her fairly long list of vegetable fries she has tried. I can confirm they make the most wonderful chips (fries) and crisps (chips). Here we can get bags of parsnip crisps or parsnip, beetroot and carrot mixes. Only think to remember don't have the fat to hot because of the natural sugars in them they brown very fast.

Angela over at Angela's Kitchen has a birthday girl in the family this week and has made the most fantastic cupcakes for her.. those would be appreciated by pretty much all our family young or old !! The Princess Bride is a must see and one of our all time favourites.. fantastic fairytale for the kids, so many layers, double meanings and just brilliant sayings for the more adult among us! I quite fancy the sound of Halibut in Green Tea Broth too!!

Daring Cooks do Satay

The January 2010 DC challenge was hosted by Cuppy of Cuppylicious and she chose a delicious Thai-inspired recipe for Pork Satay from the book 1000 Recipes by Martha Day.

This was a very interesting and indeed delicious recipe. Not a straight thai satay but none the worse for that.

I made two versions, chicken and pork, both were really lovely.. The pork was stronger and darker which I loved, where as the chicken was gobbled up by the smaller members of the family. The marinade gave the meat a lovely depth of flavour but still allowed each meat to come though.

Cuppy also gave us a peanut sauce recipe to go with the meat. My first attempt doing this curdled horribly. I think I cooked it too fast and too hot, but after much stirring it came back together. The second time I was more careful to heat it slowly and it worked fine.. yes it was good enough to make more than once. It is possible though that the sort of peanut butter I used had some effect as I used two different types. The first one was a fairly basic smooth and the second a whole-nut crunchy. Both were great and we ate the extra over the remaining rice.. Honestly I could just eat rice and sauce!

I can honestly say this was the quickest and easiest Daring recipe I have ever done but that is not at all a bad thing as it is one we will certainly be adding to our regular menus and many of them have been too complicated to cook regualrly around two small boys however much we might like them.

Recipes below are as Cuppy gave them to us.

------------------------------------------------------

Pork Satay with Peanut Sauce

 Depending on the ingredients you select, 

Time Table

	Prep	Marinate	Cook
Pork	30 min.	4 – 24 hrs	20 min.
Beef/Lamb	30 min.	6 – 24 hrs	20 min.
Chicken	30 min.	2 – 12 hrs	10 – 15 min.
Vegetables	5 - 10 min.	2 hrs	5 - 10 min.
Tofu	5 - 10 min.	2 hrs	5 - 10 min.

Satay Marinade

1/2 small onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 T ginger root, chopped (optional) (2 cm cubed)
2 T lemon juice (1 oz or 30 mls)
1 T soy sauce (0.5 oz or 15 mls)
1 tsp ground coriander (5 mls)
1 tsp ground cumin (5 mls)
1/2 tsp ground turmeric (2-2.5 mls)
2 T vegetable oil (or peanut or olive oil) (30 mls)
1 pound of pork (loin or shoulder cuts) (16 oz or 450g)


Feeling the need to make it more Thai? Try adding a dragon chili, an extra tablespoon of ginger root, and 1 tablespoon (0.5 oz or 15 mls) of fish sauce. (I keep some premature (still green) dragon chili peppers in the freezer for just such an occasion.)
Directions:
1a. Cheater alert: If you have a food processor or blender, dump in everything except the pork and blend until smooth. Lacking a food processor, I prefer to chop my onions, garlic and ginger really fine then mix it all together in a medium to large bowl.
2a. Cut pork into 1 inch strips.
3a. Cover pork with marinade. You can place the pork into a bowl, cover/seal and chill, or place the whole lot of it into a ziplock bag, seal and chill.

Uncooked Chicken and Pork Satay

Chill Chart

Pork	Beef/Lamb	Chicken	Vegetables	Tofu (no oil)
4-8 hrs Up to 24 hrs	6-8 hrs Up to 24 hrs	1-4 hours Up to 12 hrs	20 min – 2 hrs Up to 4 hrs	20 min – 4 hrs Up to 12 hrs

Directions:
1b. Mix well.
2b. Cut pork into 1 inch thick strips (2-2.5 cm thick), any length.
3b. Cover pork with marinade. You can place the pork into a bowl, cover/seal and chill, or place the whole lot of it into a ziplock bag, seal and chill.

Cooking Directions (continued):
4. If using wooden or bamboo skewers, soak your skewers in warm water for at least 20 minutes before preparing skewers.
5. Gently and slowly slide meat strips onto skewers. Discard leftover marinade.*
6. Broil or grill at 290°C/550° F (or pan fry on medium-high) for 8-10 minutes or until the edges just start to char. Flip and cook another 8-10 minutes.
* If you’re grilling or broiling, you could definitely brush once with extra marinade when you flip the skewers.

 Peanut Sauce
3/4 cup coconut milk (6 oz or 180 mls)
4 Tbsp peanut butter (2 oz or 60 mls)
1 Tbsp lemon juice (0.5 oz or 15 mls)
1 Tbsp soy sauce (0.5 oz or 15 mls)
1 tsp brown sugar (5 mls)
1/2 tsp ground cumin (2.5 mls)
1/2 tsp ground coriander (2.5 mls)
1-2 dried red chilies, chopped (keep the seeds for heat)
1. Mix dry ingredients in a small bowl. Add soy sauce and lemon, mix well.
2. Over low heat, combine coconut milk, peanut butter and your soy-lemon-seasoning mix. Mix well, stir often.
3. All you’re doing is melting the peanut butter, so make your peanut sauce after you’ve made everything else in your meal, or make ahead of time and reheat.

Weekly Menu and exersise - Week 2 2010

 Ginger, chocolate and ginger/chocolate creme deserts by Tom for last weekend.

As I mentioned before I have joined the ten in 10 challenge and from there joined Sparkpeople which I am finding a really useful resource for logging both what I eat and what exercise I do. I am finding the wii fit is wonderful for keeping me doing at least some exercise each day (about 20 - 30 mins in fact) though it slipped slightly the last couple of days of last week which rather taken up with feeling lousy from a cold and cooking for an event at the weekend. I did then do some fairly energetic dancing at the event though. I also walked a few places. According to the wii fit I have even lost a few pounds though I'm not convinced I will not find them back again after the weekend.. I'll tell you later.

I did get to the allotment but only to drop off vegs for composting but I figure considering it was under several inces of snow and the ground is frozen solid I couldn't really do much anyway.. Well I do have some inside the greenhouse stuff to do but nothing serious.

I plan to continue to trying to do the wii fit most days and walking as much as possible, though I am wary of the state of our pavements with the current snow and ice, we arn't used to it here but we have made a decision in our house that next time it snows we are clearing the pavement outside our house so it doesn't compact and turn to ice.. then at least one small streach will be clear. The number of people, particularly older people, breaking bones slipping on the way to the shops etc is just not funny at the moment.. I don't think we can expect the council to have the resources to do that, the money involved in keeping the equitment etc available for the occational day a year can be spent much better elsewhere but if we all did the pavement outside our house then it would all be clear.

This week I have joined the Primal Stride 7 day challenges. They actually start on Thursday but I missed that due to the cooking and event so I'm starting week 2 today and either overlapping next week or I'll start each week behind everyone else. This week's challenge is the Double Crunch Challenge

Exercise: 250 crunches per day. Split them up however you like. 250 crunches every 24hrs will do it. (I'm starting at 100 today and working up as I think if I do 250 I will not be able to move tomorrow and therefore fail)

Health: Eat a different green vegetable each day. Suggested modifications include eating a different fruit each day or preparing a green vegetable in a different way each day. It’s up to you! Be creative!
 
Cooking wise for the event lastweekend we made some creme deserts, three layered veg puree terrines, one pepper and cheese terrine, lots of cheese biscuits and some gluten puff pasty squares with either apple and cramalised onion or brie and cranberry. We have decided we are getting some small shot glasses to do deserts in for next time we help cater the event.. We were just doing the veg bit for one meal the main people the food did a fantastic job and there was very few things I couldn't eat which was very appriciated even the main pudding was gluten free and very nice pears in red wine with rasiens they were too!!! Unfortunatly apart from the creme deserts I was too busy to think about photos.

 The gluten free menu swap this week is hosted by Gluten free is Life and they have chosen GF Pizza which is fantastic as I was just thinking I should make up some more pizza bases. I recently saw a sweet apple based one which looked fantastic so might even try that. I will also post my menu on Organized Junkie's menu plan monday.

Menu 11th to 17th Jan 2010

Monday - pasta with a corgette and bacon sauce (green veg 1).

Tuesday -  Sausages, mash, baked beans and sprout tops (green veg 2)

Wensday - Veg terrine made with Sweet potato, parsnip and broccoli (green veg 3) with potato/sweet potato rosti for those smalls who will refuse anything that looks green and is not cucumber.

Thursday - Daring Cook reveal day and I think we will have that dish again. (you will have to wait till then to find out what it is) probably served with spinich (green veg 4)

Friday -  stir fried sprouts with honey, ginger and lemon with noodles and stir fried chicken. (green veg 5 - I think sprouts and sprout tops taste different enough to count as different veg.)

Sataday  - we are having a brithday dinner party for Tom, menu still to be sorted based on who is definetly coming and what they can and can't eat.. So far with 8 people we have vegitarian, gluten free, no eggs/tomatoes and possibly no cheese as well as some who are fussy on veg and so forth :)  I love my friends they like to challange me ! I will manage a proper dinner party type menu they can all eat!
(Green veg 6 - not sure as yet but there is bound to be at least one green thing.)

Sunday - Pizza as it's easy after the dinner party (green peppers of my 7th and last veg )

weekly Menu - week 1 2010

A picture of me.. what do you mean you can't see me for the battle raging next to and on top of me? 

This week Asparagus Thin has picked movie themed food for our menu swap this week which is a really fun idea, wonder if  can think clearly enough to join in. My movie choices are rather old school which isn't to say I don't watch newer ones it's just those came to mind, probably because I've seen them more often.

Lunches for boys.. - The land that Time forgot (an oldy but a goodie) - dinosaur shaped sandwiches.. we were given a cutter that cuts two dinosaurs from one slice and they love it.

Monday - [Oliver] - Cheese bread and butter pudding for the gluten eaters as we had a good but crumbly loaf to use up. Broccoli and Stilton soup for me.

Tuesday - Daring Cooks challenge dish (can't tell you what it is and a movie would be giving you a clue)

Wensday - [Lady and the tramp - my cat LOVES tuna and when begging reminds me of the siamese]  Tuna pasta bake.

Thursday - [ Lock, stock and two smoking barrels] sausage and mash.

Friday -  We will be cooking dishes for an event at the weekend so probably take out.

Last Menu of 2009

Well as the last few days of the year draw to a close it's time to look at what has been done in the last year and what will be done in the next. I think doing menus has been very useful so plan to keep doing so but I hope to plan a touch longer in advance most of the time and I am considering including all the allotment stuff in this blog. There are pros and cons to having a seperate one but I'm finding I'm forgetting to do that one as well as this and a craft related one so i may move it here as it's food related all be it growing not eating.

The gluten free menu plan is hosted by The GFCF Cookbook this week and they have picked leftover ham as the ingredient. Normally I always have leftover ham but I didn't do the meat this year so actually haven't got any leftover meat at all ! I do however have plenty of left over vegs (I always over buy for events of any kind), christmas pud (though that will last months if we want it to) and plenty of things like cheese.

I am thinking about what aims I want for next year but that will come in another post shortly.

Menu for the coming week.

Monday - Baked potatoes and whatever toppings people fancy plus leftover gingerbread cheesecake.

Tuesday -Vegetable gratin might even used bread crumbs as I have some left from last week rather than my normal crushed crisp topping.

Wednesday - Battered fish and chips or a suet pudding depending where I go shopping for meat/fish and what is good..

Thursday - Probably random party type food.. having a low key kids get together in the afternoon then just a quiet night in to see the new year in.. probably a nice bottle of something but not much more.

Friday - Sausage meat patties, mash and veg.

Catching up and getting sorted for Christmas

 Making Banana Bread

Sorry about the lack of posts last week. The week started with both Treestump and I suffering from a stomach bug so cooking as very low down my agenda. However we are recovered and apart from the normal lucking colds of this time of this time if year and the red cheeks which mean Treestump is probably brewing his second set of molars we are fine.

I made five of these in total.

I have finally used the last few bananas from my bargin a few weeks ago, well technically the last hand full were just a bit too squashy and have gone in the compost but it really was just a few last ones all the others got eaten. While they looked rather brown and spotty when we got them they turned out to be very nice and many were eaten just as is or as smoothies and fritters. I also made several batches of banana bread some of which is in the freezer, three batches of chutney and some banana curd which I've never had before and is very nice, though too sweet for me to eat with a spoon unlike Noodles who was happy to do just that!

I also failed to report back on the suet pudding. I did make a steak and onion one and it was really good. The pastry is fairly easy to work with partly as a slightly rough look is part of the appeal and so a few bits filled in by squishing offcuts into the gaps are fine.

The filled pudding before the top pastry was put on.

I used a very traditional recipe from back in Mrs Beeton's day so the ingredient list for the filling was pretty basic but I thought that was fine and the meat was good quality. Really just meat, onion, a bit of water and a bit of seasoning. Then it was steamed for about an hour and a half and came out looking like this.

The plated dish is pretty basic and not going to win any beauty awards but it is very tasty and just right for cold weather, thought I realy should have done a green veg as well !

Anyway on to this coming week.

Of course the week finishes with Christmas Day on Friday and we will be having a Christmas meal with my brother, his family, my mum and stepdad. Un-usually this year I am not doing the main cooking, my brother has offered to do that so I'm supplying vegs, stuffing and christmas pudding.

Working up to that the menu will be roughly as follows.

Monday - Fish pie with greens

Tuesday - Pho

Wednesday - Probably running round like a mad thing by this point so something very simple like "tomato and eggs"

Thursday - Salmon in some manner and Fruit Brulee for pud ( fruit covered in whipped cream with a caramel pored over which goes hard as it hits the cold cream... fantastic and a bit of a Christmas tradition on and off)

Friday - breakfast  - we normally have smoked salmon and scrambled egg but I'm tempted to do gingerbread waffles instead having found a recipe that looks adaptable on Martha Stewart's site.

Saturday - Another get together with Tom's family - we are supplying a pudding. Currently planning either summer pudding as I have a good variety of berries frozen from the summer or gingerbread cheesecake also from Martha Stewart's site.

Sunday -  A quiet day probably just eating any leftovers and the various cheeses and pates we always stock up on this time of year. Possibly a fresh made veg soup and scones.

Baking and batch cooking -
Still have some bits to make for presents as we do hampers for some people.
Plus biscuits and bread for us.

Weekly Menu Swap - Hosting Ingredient - Suet

I realise that many people will probably never knowingly have used suet and indeed suet recipes seem to be mainly British dishes but the actual ingredient is available anywhere that cows and sheep are eaten. Why? Because it is the fat from around the internal organs.. OK I know at this point some of you are thinking that's gross but really it's not much different to using dripping or similar. Suet has the properties of being quite flaky in nature, having a low melting point and producing a very distinctive pastry among other things. There is also a vegetarian version though that might be hard to get in none suet using areas.. OK it's not probably something you want to use every day but there are some traditional winter dishes here which don't work without it.

To be fair much of it doesn't get used at least not by butchers these days as my previous post will show, I got a large amount for free of my butcher as he normally asks the abattoir to remove it before sending him the meat.. it's crumbly nature means the cool-room floor gets covered in bits otherwise. Now the abattoir might well have a use for it other than sending to a butcher.. You can certainly buy it in packets but it is coated in flour after it is grated to keep the bits separate so it is no good for me.  It is also used a lot over here to make fatballs to put out for wild birds by combining it with seeds and other bits they like, it makes a good high calorie food for them. Traditionally it was rendered down to make tallow for candles too, very smoky candles for the masses who couldn't afford beeswax! .

So what recipes use it? Well Christmas pudding for a start and mincemeat, this is probably partly because mincemeat at least used to have meat in it.. I once made a traditional mincemeat with minced meat in it and apart from having to keep the mince pies in the fridge they really tasted no different to the none meat version which keeps for at least a year in a jar!

It is also used in suet pastry which is used in suet puddings.. these are savoury puddings ie steamed in a pudding basin, normally an outside of pastry with a pie type filling or even a plain sponge pudding type one to serve with meat a bit like Yorkshire pudding is . There are also sweet suet puddings eaten for pudding such as spotted dick and jam suet pudding... Have you noticed we like the word pudding over here  :)   I'm planning a meat filled suet pasty style pudding this week.

Delia's suet pastry
Bacon and leek suet pudding from Farmers Weekly
Plain suet pudding from The Foody
Spotted Dick from the Jane Austin Centre
Jam spong pudding from Cook it Simply

It's also used in dumplings to put in a stew for the last 20 mins or so of the cooking time which are a firm favourite here. Dumplings are very easy.. they are basically twice as much flour as fat and whatever flavours you like such as herbs, onion, cheese or whatever goes with the stew.


Basic dumplings from The Foody
A version from Jamie Oliver for those who don't have suet

I posted some links to Christmas pudding recipes a couple of weeks ago and will post up my gluten free, corn free, citrus free version when I have finished trialling it..

Here are a couple of mincemeat recipes, mincemeat is easy to make and once made you can make another British Christmas staple the mincepie. There are plenty of other uses for mincemeat too as you can see here.

Delia's version.
A meat version from River Cottage
 
Anyway that is probably more about Suet than you ever wanted to know so on to the menus.

Our menu this week.

Monday - Suet meat pudding with potatoes, cabbage and carrots.

Tuesday - Fish pie

Wednesday - School play so something simple like baked potatoes we can have quickly.

Thursday - Cauliflower cheese.

Friday - Stew and dumplings.

Baking and other batch cooking- Chrismas puddings, Banana bread, banana chukney, banana curd, banana steamed pudding.. (well I do still have about 16lb of bananas to use up! )

Other Menus

Heather over at Celiac Family has just got back from a surprise trip to Disney World the lucky thing, she has a lovely sounding menu plan though she tells us it is quite simple due to the hectic time of year !

Angela at Angela's Kitchen does use suet even if only to make fat balls for the birds ! her menu so based on some deals her hubby picked up which is the sort of menu I love. her Thai seasoned patties sound particularly interesting.

Cheryl from Gluten free goodness  has a lovely photo of her cats all curled up to greet us. She has a very interetsing sounding menu and she may never have heard of suet but then I have no idea what mahi or kalamatas are so we are even !  

Weekly Menu 30th November to 4th December

Well I've missed Stir it up Sunday but plan to make christmas puds this week if I can find the time. We visited my mum this weekend who is rather under the weather as is her dog and indeed my youngest.. all different things but it's just one of those times. Was very nice to see mum and I have to work harder on the allotment to catch up with hers!

Menu this week partly based on the fact  should be picking up a sausage/sausage meat order from my butcher and hopefully some suet, partly for the christmas pud. One of the things i dislike in pretty much all the pre-made Gluten free christmas puds I've tried is the fat that seems to stay solid in on the edges and I think that is partly they are using vegetarian suet so I hope my butcher will be getting me some of the real stuff without the flour that contaminates the boxed stuff so then I can try a proper recipe with proper animal fat!

If I do get the suet I also want to make a steak pudding.. it meat wrapped in a suet pastry and steamed. We rits use pudding to mean both a dish cooked in a pudding bowl that is either using pastry or cakey (these can be both sweet or savory) or a generic word for desert.

My smallest is on antibiotics as his throat and ears are inflamed ad he hasn't been eating much but I hope once the medication kicks in he will feel more like eating. Strangely while he is off even things like icecream he is still eating salt and vinegar crisps which I would have thought was spiky and acid.

This weeks menu is a bit random and not fully worked out more of a sketch menu.

Monday - Pasta and cheese/ham sauce

Tuesday - I'm out most of the day so something simple like fish-fingers and smilies faces.

Wednesday - sausage and mash.

Thursday - something pumpkin based as mum gave us one she grew.

Friday - Suet pudding

You will be able to find more gluten free menus at Asparagus thin who is hosting the menu swap this week.

Weekly menu 16th to 20th November 2009

Treestump enjoying some late flowers in his aunts garden. Wish we had a garden that size though she is hoping to move soon but says the current house will be a hard act to follow.

We had the allotment AGM this weekend and I promised to make some gluten free nibbles. I made some cheese biscuits and they went down so well I ave included the recipe at the end of this post. They are based on several cheese savory I've tried in the past but the exact mix was a new one I tried and worked very well indeed.

This weeks menu swap is hosted by In my Box who chose Dutch ovens this week. I have never been sure what a Dutch oven is but after seeing her photo of hers I realise I've had one. I call it my Le Creuset casserole. I have a cobalt blue one which was a wedding present and a very very well received one at that. I can confirm they are fantastic for cooking stews and casseroles in.

We have decided we have been slipping on the amount of vegs we have been eating so are trying to up that this week.

Menu this week.

Monday - boys had boiled eggs and soldiers, we are having a prawns, courgette, mushrooms, tomatoes and  pasta in a white wine and cream sauce..

Tuesday - Sweet potato rostis, pork chops and green vegs.

Wednesday - bean and veg stew with baked potatoes

Thursday -  butternut squash gratin with any vegs left before the new box turns up.

Friday -  Fish and chips.

Baking - Daring Bakers monthly challenge, cheese biscuits 

Cheese Biscuits

(makes about 45)

2 oz Dove Farm Gluten Free plain flour (or other generic GF flour mix)
2 oz Gram flour
8 oz Cheddar or mix of cheeses
1/2 tsp salt
good pinch of cayenne pepper or similar spice.
good pinch of mustard powder (make sure it's gluten free).
good pinch of black pepper.
3 oz butter
1 egg

Sieve the flours into a bowl with spices and mustard. Add the salt and cheese then rub in the butter till it's crumbly.
Add an egg and a little more flour if needed to make the pastry rollable which will depend on how big the egg is.. if the egg is big it ends up a little too sticky

Roll out pastry to about 3mm (1/8 inch) using plenty of flour to flour the board.. gluten free of course. Then use a small cutter to cut biscuits.
Arrange on a none stick or greased baking tray, these can be quite close together as they don't expand much.

Cook at 190 C for 10-12 minutes.

Cool on a rack.