Cherry Tomatoes

When you wake up hungry for a million cherry tomatoes, you decide that you will find a million cherry tomatoes.

Juicy, ripe, warm in the sun. And then you think up ways to eat a million cherry tomatoes.

This is the making of semi dried tomato halves, putting them into the food drier for about a day on medium temperature. Later they were put into jars with garlic, olive oil, salt, pepper and assorted fresh herbs.

Cucumber Pickles

I tweaked this recipe for bread & butter cucumbers. This is my version, half quantity & slightly different flavours. :)

Ingredients:

3 Long Green cucumbers
1/4 capsicum
1 onion
1/6 cup of salt (a little less than 3 tablespoons)

2 cups apple cider vinegar
10 tablespoons white sugar (a little more than half a cup)
2 teaspoons fresh dill, chopped
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
1 teaspoons fresh coriander seeds
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon black peppercorns


Method:

1. Peel & slice cucumbers. Slice onions & capsicum. Sprinkle with salt. Cover & refrigerate overnight.
2. Drain cucumbers, capsicum & onion. Cover with water once & drain, to rinse some salt off.
   
3. In a large saucepan heat vinegar, sugar, dill, mustard, coriander, turmeric & pepper until boiling.
   
4. Add cucumbers, capsicum & onion to vinegar mixture. Bring to boil for 2-5 minutes then remove from heat.
   
5. Using a slotted spoon, add pickles to prepared jars*.
6. Pour remaining vinegar mixture over pickles until a few millimetres from the top of the jar. Wipe any drips from the top of the jar so it will seal properly.
7. Use a skewer to remove air bubbles from full jars.
   
8. Screw lids on tightly. Lids should pop in and seal properly in the next hour or so

* You want jars and lids clean, hot and completely dry before you add pickles, so wash, rinse and dry completely with a teatowel. Then place in the oven on trays on about 100˚C until you're ready to put the pickles in.

Tea & resolutions

Turmeric Tea
- 4 cups hot water
- 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
- 1 teaspoon honey

Resolutions for 2012:

1. eat fruit & vegies every day & eat less processed foods
2. be fit enough to jump with a skipping rope 500 times in 3 minutes by March 3 2012
3. daily prayer am & pm.
4. try natural remedies to clear my skin
5. introduce 10 new people to the delights of neways
6. get a job
7. become a justice of the peace
8. have $8000 in my bank account on Dec 31, 2012
9. take a dog for a run along a beach
10. finish reading Ezekiel 44-48, Matthew 7-Acts 10 and Titus - Revelation of the Bible
11. publish my 300th blog post on this blog (150 to go)
    
12. get my license
13. own a car
14. rent a house
15. do a first aid / CPR course
16. celebrate my 21st birthday
17. revise my spanish textbook pages 1-183
18. travel in australia & overseas

Lucy's Icecream

1.5 cups of homemade kefir
1 teaspoon honey
1 cup of frozen raspberries

1 Nectarine
1 Mango
1 Banana
1 teaspoon honey

Blend ingredients.
Freeze in ice block molds.
Add paddle pop stick when slightly frozen.
Makes about 6.

bananas

Too many bananas? I don't know what you're talking about.

100% wholewheat bread

ingredients:
3-4 cups of wholemeal flour
2 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons olive oil
375mls warm tank water, approximately
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
1/4 cup sesame seeds
1/4 cup oat bran
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons dried yeast
a few teaspoons of chia seeds

method:

1. Combine dried yeast, most of the warm water and a teaspoon of honey to small bowl. Stand at room temperature for 10 minutes, or until the yeasties start sounding like lemonade when stirred softly.
2. Add oil, salt and rest of honey to yeast mixture.
3. Combine all wet ingredients and all dry ingredients (except chia seeds) in a large bowl, adding the flour quarter a cup at a time.
4. Knead by hand for 15 minutes.*
5. Set aside to rise in a covered bowl in a warm place for several hours. *
6. Put dough into a greased loaf pan, 20cm x 10cm.
7. Sprinkle chia seeds on top.
8. Cook in a preheated oven at 200˚C for 45 minutes or until done.
9. Stand for 5-10 minutes.
10. Remove from pan. Slice.

* wholemeal flour needs a longer kneading time, and takes longer to rise compared to white flour.

Peach Jam

Peaches are fairly sweet, so use a peach to sugar ratio of 1:3/4 and cook until it's done how you want it.

Ingredients:
57% Peaches
43% Sugar (raw and/or white)

Method:

1. Peel and chop peaches into pieces that are relatively the same size. (This is so it cooks consistently.)
   
2. Weigh peach pieces.
3. Weigh out sugar into a separate bowl.*
4. Slowly heat peach pieces in large saucepan. They will get very juicy. Bring to boil.
5. Stir thoroughly to avoid sticking on the bottom. ("Stir it, and don't be silly," Granny says.)
6. Boil until the peaches start to thicken a little as some juice evaporates.
7. Add sugar, half a cup at a time so the peaches don't cool down too much. Keep stirring.
8. Prepare jars between adding sugar. **
9. After all sugar has been added it will take half an hour to an hour or longer. The jam will go clearer and less lumpy and start to thicken. Keep stirring to avoid sticking to the bottom.
10. Remove the froth from top of jam if you want. (Nothing wrong with froth, it just can look funny at the top of the jar.)
11. Test the jam until it's as thick as you want it. ***
12. Turn stove off.
13. Using a teatowel, remove a hot jar from the oven. Spoon jam into jar until a few millimetres from top of jar. Wipe up any drips from around top of jar (it won't seal properly if there's jam in the seal).
14. Loosely put lid on jar. Set aside.
15. Fill remaining jars.
16. After about half an hour, screw the lids on tightly. Jar lids should pop in and seal properly in the next hour or so.

* How much sugar? You want 3/4 the amount of sugar as you have peaches. (eg, 2kg of peach pieces, 1.5kg of sugar).

** How to prepare jars? You want jars and lids clean, hot and completely dry before you put jam into them, so wash, rinse and dry completely with a teatowel. Then place in the oven on trays on about 100˚C until you're ready to put the jam in. If the jars aren't hot, they will crack when the hot jam hit them suddenly.

"Why do the jars have to be completely dry?" I asked Granny.
"That's too silly to answer. It's just common sense. If you've got any common sense, that is," came the reply.

***How to test the jam? When the jam with all its sugar has been boiling for more than half an hour or it starts to thicken a little, take a teaspoon of jam to test. Put a small amount of jam onto a cool plate in the freezer for 5 minutes or so. Once cooled down completely, tip the plate up - if the jam runs too much it's not done yet, so keep boiling and test again soon. If the jam sticks well and wrinkles or is at a consistency that you like your jam, it's ready to put in to jars. You can make your jam as runny or thick as you want it.

Sweet Potato Bread

I tweaked this recipe for sweet potato rolls. This is my version, as a partly wholemeal loaf bread with less sugar:

Ingredients:
2 small-ish sweet potatoes, boiled.
1 cup milk
2 teaspoons instant dried yeast
1/4 cup white sugar
2 teaspoons salt
sprinkle of cinnamon and nutmeg
3-4 cups plain flour (2 cups white flour, nearly 2 cups wholemeal flour)


Method:

1. Stir milk and yeast together. Add a teaspoon of the sugar. Stand at room temperature for 10 minutes.
   
2. Mash sweet potato. Add to milk mixture.
3. Add sugar, salt, spices and half the flour to a large bowl. Add milk/potato mixture.
   
4. Mix well. Add more flour 1/4 cup at a time. Mix well after each time you add flour until the dough is still sticky but can be handled with wet hands. (Bit of guesswork here, pretend you know what you're doing, and hope for the best!)
   
5. Knead by hand for 10 minutes.
6. Set dough aside to rise in a covered bowl for 1 or 3 hours, until dough has roughly doubled in size.
   
7. Put dough into a greased loaf pan. (It'll go back to original size as you handle the dough again so it'll fit in a 20cm x 10cm dish)
   
8. Sprinkle sesame seeds on top. Cut designs into top if you want.
   
9. Cook in a preheated oven at 200˚C for 40 minutes or until the top is turning brown.
10. Enjoy!

15 Egg Pie

Ingredients:
- 15 homegrown guinea fowl eggs
- equivalent of a few mouthfuls of milk
- vegetables of your choice
- grated cheese



Method:
- mix everything together
- put it in a dish in oven on less than 180˚C
- cook until set in the middle
- sprinkle cheese on top, leave in oven until cheese is melted