Confessions of a pregnant homeschooling greenie

Looking back over my blog, I'm aware that it may be possible to come away with the impression that things like homemade bread and yoghurt are standard fare in our house, that disposable nappies are only reserved for dire emergencies, that we have an extensive and productive garden and that we spend oodles of time immersed in improving books.

Time for a reality check

If these things get blogged about, it is generally because they're so novel and exciting that I want to share them.

Sure, before we were expecting baby#3 I hardly used disposable nappies/diapers, and I cooked from scratch most nights, and I almost never used the clothes drier. But there come times in your life when you just need to *let it go* and do it the easy way.

I had a day about a month ago when I looked at the wet clothes in the washing machine, looked at the bright sunny day outside, and gave in to my exhaustion. The clothes went into the drier because on that day it was honestly a choice between using the drier and leaving the clothes wet in the machine. Since then I confess that the drier has been getting quite a work out.

I also confess that I can't recall precisely the last occasion I used cloth nappies. I know it was within the last few weeks, but I think it was actually Merl who put them on Miss2. It wasn't me!

Tonight for tea we had fried chicken-and-cheese-sausages with tomato sauce (ketchup), and as a token gesture, a corn-on-the-cob each. That was it. No wholesome fresh-dug potatoes, or wholemeal bread, or salad, or anything. Sausages and corn. Miss5 looked at her plate and said "this isn't a very healthy meal, Mum". I replied, "Nope, but it's not too bad - you've got corn, and you can have an apple for dessert."

My microwave is getting quite the workout too.

The 'garden' is currently one bare circle waiting to be planted out, and one circle full of wheat-grass that is overgrowing the valiant struggle for survival of the veggies. And some herbs. Mint mostly.

As for the books, well, we do spend oodles of time immersed in them. They just aren't all 'improving' ones! Miss5 reads tonnes and tonnes of Asterix. I read bulk quantities of historical whodunnits (okay, I do get annoyed if the history is wrong, but they still really are pulp fiction). Merl reads a lot of fantasy/science fiction - some of which is brilliant and 'improving' - some of which is pulp escapism.

We are happy, lazy and messy people. When I get less tired then I will be able to lift our sights up out of bare-minimum housework. But until then, *letting it go* is working quite well for us!


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make your own apple cider vinegar

Here's the scenario:

It is New Year's Eve. You are at a friend's house and have offered to make the Guacamole. Your friend hands you the perfect avocado, the pottle of cream cheese and gives you directions to the chives in the backyard. They then reach for the apple cider vinegar from their cupboard and say "Ew gross, what is that?!" You come over for a look and see a floating disk of slime in their bottle of vinegar.

What. do. you. do?

If you have been following Rhonda's wonderful blog, you reach for it and say "Oh Cool! You've got a Vinegar Mother! Do you want it? Cos if you don't can I have it? Please?"

Yes, truly.

Rhonda's got a couple of posts on making your own vinegar here and here. I was so inspired I decided to try it myself. I had been idly thinking about making my own vinegar using one of the recipes that don't start with a 'mother', since I've been feeling like vinegary things lately (mmmmm, pickles), but after having such a lucky find on Wednesday I was propelled from idle thoughts into definite action.

vinegar ingredients

So here's what you start with. Apple juice (the bottle on the left), a sterile container to make the vinegar in (on the right), and your 'mother of vinegar' (in the centre). I used 3L of apple juice and a gallon container. Use less if that's what you've got.

the 'mother of vinegar'

Here's what the 'mother of vinegar' looks like when poured out into a small bowl. I vaguely remember an old boyfriend making 'kombucha' - some odd mushroom drink thing that's supposed to be fabulously good for you. It looks a bit like that.

apple juice and red wine, with mother added to each

Then I split the mother, by gently pulling it apart with a couple of butter knives. Then poured one half into the apple juice and the other half into a half-litre of red wine leftover from a dinner earlier in the week (I figured I might as well make red wine vinegar while I was about it!). You can see the mother floating in the apple juice.

the vinegars-to-be, in the hotwater cupboard

The jars were covered with muslin cloth to allow them to breathe while keeping the vinegar flies out, labelled with the contents and the date, and put safely away in my hotwater cupboard. Rhonda says you can leave it on the bench to ferment happily, but I don't have that much bench space, my little projects need to be kept away from inquisitive hands, and frankly my bench top is not the warm 25-30degC that she enjoys in her northern Australian climate. The hotwater cupboard will do nicely.

Now all I need to do is be patient for anywhere between 2 and 6 months.

It's very exciting. I'm not sure I can wait that long!
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oven dried tomatoes - recipe

Store bought tomatoes, washed and ready for anything

I'm experimenting with more ways to put my tomato surplus in the 'pantry bank', so to speak. Having recently purchased the first two Destitute Gourmet cookbooks, I was keen to put them to good use. I've already baked the Oaty Crisp biscuits (cookies if you're in the US) every week, so that justifies the purchase of book 1. This week I'm drying tomatoes in my oven. (Handily justifying the purchase of book 2 - justifying to myself, I mean. I'd be annoyed to fork out money for recipe books I won't use).

Before I get into the pictorial extravaganza, I'll point out that drying stuff in a warm oven for hours is not exactly 'destitute' cookery. It would have been far more frugal to blanch and freeze them, or bottle the tomatoes to use in recipes in place of tinned ones. But it was fun.

If I could rig up a solar dehydrator for use on those long hot mid-summer days then it would cross the threshold into true frugality (especially if I found a cheap supply of olive oil...). But for now, here is how I interpreted the instructions given me by the great Sophie Gray.


First, preheat your oven to 125degC

Wash your tomatoes and take off the green bits. Slice them in half and poke holes in the skin with a wooden skewer (or a fork if you don't have any skewers).

Excuse the state of my oven - I don't clean it often

Lay the tomatoes on an oven tray or two and pop them in the oven.

Wedge the oven door open slightly with the handle of a wooden spoon. This allows the evaporating water to escape the oven, and allows the tomatoes to actually dry.

One spoon, artfully placed

I think I left mine too long. You're aiming for soft fruit-leather type consistency, without them being juicy - no juice should ooze out if you squeeze one. But mine are a bit crispy round the edges - for some reason I was heading more for banana-chip consistency (which is odd as 1. I hate banana chips and 2. We do eat sun-dried tomatoes, so I'm not unfamiliar with their consistency. Weird. I'll just put it down to a bit of a head cold). The book says up to 6 hours, but mine were still a bit juicy then. Use your judgment and make notes for yourself for next time.

When they're done, put them into sterile jars*, pour olive oil over the top until the jar is full and screw the lids down. I'm hoping that soaking in olive oil will soften mine up somewhat.


These dried tomatoes are not bright red. Apparently bought ones are soaked in something first to keep them red coloured, so your homemade ones will have that artisan-craft additive-free look to them. And you get bonus flavoured olive oil for all sorts of goodies once you've eaten the tomatoes.

From 3 kilograms of tomatoes (about 6 pound, give or take) I made 2 jars of dried tomato goodness. So I guess one way that this beats freezing or bottling fresh tomatoes is the space saving component. That's a lot of concentrated tomato flavour in a couple of little jars.

Enjoy!

*I sterilised the jars by taking the tomatoes out of the oven, and putting the jars in, at 125degC for 10 to 15mintues. I sterilized the lids by pouring boiling water over them and leaving them to sit for the same time period. If you have your own preferred sterilization method, then use it. Tomatoes are quite acidic so are a bit more resistant than other foods to 'close enough is good enough' sterilisation standards.
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lacto-fermented tomato relish

Tomatoes are in season in New Zealand and are consequently very economical. Apparently there have also been issues with exporting them this year, so there is quite a glut of them. All the better to buy up large and preserve them for the rest of the year.

This year I've decided to try one of the Nourishing Traditions lacto-fermented relishes, as well as the usual Edmond's Cookbook relishes and chutneys that all kiwi families know and love.

Step 1 - gather your ingredients. In the photo above, you see
1 Capsicum, or Bell Pepper. Recipe said green, but I used an orange one, then photographed a red one. This needs to be seeded and chopped. i.e. cut it open, throw away the bit with the seeds, and chop up the skin and flesh.
5 Tomatoes. Recipe said 4, but mine weren't very big. Skin them, remove the seeds, and chop.
1 Tablespoons Salt. Recipe calls for natural sea salt. What I have is iodized table salt with anti-caking agent. The purists will throw their hands up in horror. Go ahead.
2 Chillies. Recipe says fresh jalapenos. I have dried chillies of indeterminate species, harvested and dried from a chili potplant I was given. Remove the seeds and chop, being scrupulous about washing your hands afterward. Chili juice burns like fire.
4 Tablespoons Whey. Mine is some liquid strained from homemade yoghurt. Recipe says you can omit this and add more salt, but doesn't say how much more salt.

Then I went for a walk in the garden and gathered 3 green/spring onions and a few leaves of vietnamese coriander/cilantro.










These were also finely chopped, and everything was mashed together in a glass bowl, along with 1/2cup of water. (Tap water. I can hear the screams of purist agony from here).

The mix was then poured into a large preserving jar, tightly sealed, and placed on the bench for a few days (2 to 4 depending on how warm your house is) for those friendly lacto-fermenting bugs to do their thing. Then place it somewhere cool for storage.

Traditional Sauerkraut is probably the most widely known lacto-fermented food. I've not eaten ordinary sauerkraut, but have enjoyed Kimchi, the spicy Korean version. When cabbages are plentiful in my garden, next year sometime, I'll give that a go too.
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homemade tortillas

Mixing the oil into the flour

I tried making my own wheatflour tortillas the other night. We had leftovers, and not many of them, and I needed some way to make the same dinner over again look like a completely different dinner. Solution? Wrap it in a tortilla!

Personally I don't know how people roll them thinly enough to make them look like shop bought tortillas - mine ended up looking a lot more like naan bread once they were cooked. But that is not a bad thing. Naan is in fact very good.

Since it was my first attempt, I stuck to the recipe exactly - next time I'll use butter instead of oil and at least some wholemeal/wheatmeal flour in with it, perhaps up to 50/50.

As for the tools to use, you can use anything to mix the oil in - you don't have to use the nifty pastry cutter (or blender) that you see in my photo. I like to use it because it was my Mum's. It also spreads the oil through really evenly. I don't use it to mix the water in though - it just gets clogged up. That's when I switch to my wooden spoon.

I don't think I used quite enough water - they were not really soft enough to roll out easily. But be careful not to add too much. Soggy dough is a bit harder to correct.

Apparently these freeze well, but I'd probably need to triple the recipe to have any left to freeze.

Tortillas

2 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons oil
about 3/4 cup warm water

Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl (or food processor), add the oil and then slowly add enough warm water to form a soft dough. Knead on a floured board for about 5 minutes then allow the dough to rest.
Divide dough into 10 or so small balls and roll out thinly.
Cook them quickly in a greased, moderately hot pan for half a minute or so, until they bubble and start to brown. Turn and cook the other side.
Keep them in a damp tea-towel to keep soft and reheat in aluminium foil in the oven. Read more...

Great grandmother's tomato relish

My Nana's mother had a recipe book. Handwritten in a notebook are all the recipes - and some sewing and knitting patterns - that she used.

I never knew my Nana's mum. She died when my Nana was just 12 years old. Since then my Nana and my own mother have passed away and so this notebook treasure has come into my possession. When I was about 12 I wanted to type it out to preserve the recipes but my good intentions reached as far as a few pages, long since lost. The notebook is markedly worse for wear now, nearly 20 years later, and the mice have had a field day with the corners (My Nana had forgotten it was in the bottom of one of her kitchen cupboards and was horrified to discover this evidence of rodents in her domain). Sadly some of the recipes have vital bits missing thanks to the mice.

I have rekindled my good intentions, so as I type them up into a document, I shall post some here as well, to share the discoveries.

All measurements will be Imperial, not US (see here for conversion).

I will type them as she wrote them. If you're going to try them out (and I hope some people do!) please do remember that she was cooking on a coal range, and wrote these recipes down for her own usage, so her instructions may be confusing or incomplete where she just knew what to do next.

Tomato Relish

15 large tomatoes
4 large onions
1 lb sugar
1 quart vinegar
5 chillies
Cut up in small rounds. Boil together 1 1/4 hours - Add 1 dessertspoon of Curry powder, 1 dessertspoon mustard and 1/2 cup of flour - mix with a little cold vinegar and boil a few minutes.


From what I can guess, based on 'traditional' New Zealand cookery, 'mustard' will mean dry mustard powder, as opposed to mustard that's ready to use from a jar or bottle. Read more...

Kick A Germ Joy Juice

"Elephant Garlic de Placitas" by Linda Heath

I found a "Kick A Germ Joy Juice" recipe in a Permaculture recipe book yesterday, 'You can have your permaculture and eat it too', by Robin Clayfield, which I'm borrowing from the library.

Since we have all had a terrible phlegmy cough and the kids have just wanted to sit around and sleep on the couch for stretches of the last few days, I thought we'd give it a try. I didn't inflict it on Miss1, but Miss4 sipped at it in widely spaced sips before finally and conveniently spilling it on the couch... She did better on the batch I made today - without the cayenne pepper, and with more honey :)

Before sharing the recipe with the world, I googled to see what came up and there are about a billion different recipes with this name (okay, maybe a dozen), all variations on the same theme. So here you have a version of Kick A Germ Joy Juice. I must say it tastes mighty fine - I personally much prefer it with the cayenne pepper, but I quite like a bit of a burn, if it's the right sort of burn (and this surely was).

juice of one lemon (or lime or orange)
clove of garlic, finely chopped (or equivalent amount if using fabulous elephant garlic, as we were!)
1cm grated fresh ginger
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
mix together in a small jug and pour hot boiled water over the lot, dissolving
1 teaspoon honey
into it. Cover and leave to sit for 10-15 minutes before drinking.

I made about 1 1/2 cups with the above recipe and strained it through a tea-strainer (small sieve) as I poured it into the cups.

Very warming, and it makes you feel like you're doing something about the germs, which I'm sure is at least half the battle :)

A visitor yesterday happened to remark about the strong garlicky smell in the house, so perhaps use with discretion if the odour is repellent to you. I guess you could leave the garlic out, but I think it likely that the garlic is the most germ-kicking bit in the recipe, so probably not recommended if you actually want to fight off a threatening cold or flu.

Sláinte! Read more...

where is all the food?

I went to the supermarket today. This is kinda unusual for me, because Merl has "Daddy-daughter time" on Saturday mornings with Miss4 and they go to the various veggie markets and the supermarket for the food shopping then.

This past Saturday the weather was utterly filthy and we decided to have a day inside looking out the window at sleet and snow.

The up-shot being that we ran out of bread. I did bake, but I forgot the bread was in the oven and it got more than a bit over-cooked. Now, we don't mind crunchy crusts, but it'd be nice if we could actually cut the bread. So. The supermarket.

Usually when I go in, I have a specific purchase in mind, find my way more or less directly to the aisle, select the best value for money and, having (usually) refused a plastic bag, make my exit.

Today, Miss4 and I pushed Miss1 in the trolley up and down all the aisles, as we had a small selection of things on the mental list. I was struck the vast quantity of "not-food" that was for sale. Aisle after aisle of food-substitutes. Jars of brightly coloured corn-starch goop (also known as 'simmer sauces', 'pasta sauces', 'stir-fry sauces', to add to your frozen packets of pre-chopped veges and pre-chopped meat, to serve up on your boil-in-a-bag white rice. A vast array of muesli bars/snack bars/fruit-squeezy things, each claiming to be more healthy and a more complete breakfast/snack/meal-substitute than the last. Chippies, of course. Not-Chippies (apple chips, puffed grain chips, reconstituted potato chips). Biscuits. Not-Biscuits (aka crackers). Chocolate. Boiled sweets. instant soups. instant noodles. instant gravy.

Of course, none of this is actually new to me, but I was struck by the strangeness of it today.

If the average trolley leaving the supermarket reflects the average shelf-stocking of the supermarket, then what on earth are we eating??

Why are so many 'foods' being touted as low in calories? (okay, I know the answer to that one). But really, if a food has no calories, it is not actually food.

I don't know what it is, but it isn't food.

And all these not-foods are really expensive, compared to, say a bag of potatoes and some salad greens.

As an aside, I am not averse to using the odd packet of instant gravy, and in fact bought 4 tins of condensed tomato soup today, because they are so handy for making a quick meal, or flavouring a pasta sauce, or making butter chicken (Mmmmmm, butter chicken). I've just been thinking a lot lately about what food is, what we eat food for, and planning my garden around providing some of the essentials - carbs (potatoes), proteins (peas and beans), vitamins and minerals (coloured veggies and fruits), and of course flavour (herbs and fruits).

Modified corn starch doesn't appear anywhere on my list of essential food groups, but is present in large quantities in almost every pre-prepared food around. gross.

aside #2 petrol went up to $2.19 per litre today for unleaded 91octane. A litre is about the same volume as a quart, for the north americans among us. ouch. Read more...

Bean feast

Cooked a yummy dinner this evening. Hooray for Alison Holst! This was in her big red book. Everyone who is from New Zealand will know which recipe book that is, and it will likely be irrelevant information for non-Kiwis. Alison Holst is one of the patron saints of New Zealand cookery, the other being the Edmunds "sure to rise" company. Someone I knew when I was a student used to regularly praise St Edmund and St Alison.

I cooked a batch of chickpeas today in my crockpot - no soaking needed, you just whack them in with the water and cook on High for 5 or 6 hours.

4 o'clock rolled around and I needed to be inspired about those chickpeas (I think they're also known as garbanzo beans?). So out came my trusty big red Alison book. I cooked up the Bean Feast (but adapted it to what I had in my fridge):

In my trusty cast iron dutch oven I fried up (in lard Mmmmm)
2 onions,
2 cubed potatoes (skin on),
2 cubed carrots
and the chopped stalky leafy bits off a broccoli.

When this was good and hot I added
1t paprika,
2t salt,
1t oregano,
2t basil,
a small tin of tomato paste (about 1/4cup ish),
the beans (it had been 2 cups when they were dried beans)
and 2cups of the beans' cooking fluid.

This all got simmered together for about 15 minutes or so. Then I added
the head of broccoli, chopped into florets
and 1 red capsicum (bell pepper), sliced

I popped the lid on, turned the heat off and forgot about it until 5 o'clock, when I started the brown rice cooking and turned the heat back on for the bean feast to warm it through and finish cooking.

Yummo. Especially with some unsweetened yoghurt on the top. Miss4, as usual, ate mostly rice and spurned the topping, while Miss1 ate mostly topping and spurned the rice.

This recipe makes a ton of very filling food - good for potluck dinners. We've got 2 meals in the freezer out of this recipe, leftover from what I cooked this afternoon. Read more...

Sprout Bread, and review of Sproutman's Kitchen Garden

Sprout Bread a la Sproutman

Well, we baked it and ate it. Verdict: edible, unusual, tasty, but probably not going back for seconds.

The basic recipe is to take 2 cups of whole wheat berries, sprout them the same way you'd make your own mung bean sprouts or whatever, but when the shoot is not quite as long as the length of the berry, puree them to a paste in the food processor. Then shape it into little roll-sized loaves and 'bake' at 125degC for about 3 or 4 hours.

The flavour is quite sweet and malty, because when the wheat berries sprout their enzymes all kick into action and produce a fair amount of maltose. So that's quite yummy. And the sprouts are way more nutritious than straight wheat flour. I think the flavour would go better in a biscuit (what the North Americans would call a cookie). There are recipes for such in the cookbook, and I'll try them next. Just think, cookies with no sugar, no wheat flour, no baking soda etc etc. Good stuff.

It's funny, but despite the Sproutman being a near Vegan, there is a whole lot of cross-over between the recipes in his "Kitchen Garden" book and those in Sally Fallon's "Nourishing Traditions" book (fan review here), who is a confirmed meat-o-saurus, and whose book we now own because I thought it was so good. The cross-over comes because both authors/food philosophers believe strongly in reducing the 'processing' of food to almost nil, in maximising the enzyme content of your food, and have a strong emphasis on lacto-fermentation. Most of the recipes in the Kitchen Garden book would not be at all out of place in the Nourishing Traditions book.

All in all, I recommend the book, but not, perhaps the bread :) Read more...

wheat sprouts

I am sprouting wheat at the moment. I have two jars on the windowsill of the kitchen with 2 cups of wheat berries between them, all starting to poke their little sprouts out.

weird huh?

The idea is to try some of Sproutman's basic sprout bread. I will post more about it when I have tried it and can give you a verdict. Read more...

no-knead wholemeal fruit bread

After reading this post on Planet Green, I thought it might be a nice idea to bake bread at least once a week.

I found myself on Wednesday trying to remember to write "fruit bread" on the shopping list, as it's a good thing to have sliced in the freezer as a good snack for the kids (and myself) for morning or afternoon tea. Very nice toasted with butter. Mmmm.

Then I had a light bulb moment, and decided to bake my own. I've made variations on this recipe on and off for years - we found it in an old fund-raiser recipe book for La Leche League, that Merl's Mum had. It is excellent - just mix it in a bowl, stick it in the loaf tins, rise it and bake it - no kneading! Also, much cheaper and more nutritious than store-bought bread.

Here's the basic recipe. To make fruit bread, add 1Tb cinnamon and 1Tb mixed spice or garam marsala to the dry ingredients, and about 1 cup raisins (or other dried fruit) to the wets.

"Pat's Bread" - La Leche League NZ Mothering Time Cookbook, 1977

Yields two moist nutritious loaves - particularly delicious toasted

1. Put into bowl

• 1 1/2 pints (900mL) warm water
• 1 Tablespoon dried yeast
• 1 good dessertspoon treacle or molasses

and leave to stand for a few minutes.

2. Put into a large bowl

• 2lb (910g) wholemeal flour
• 1 round dessertspoon salt

3. Grease two one pound bread tins well with butter. (Very well - I line mine with baking paper)

4. Beat the liquid with a rotary beater and pour into a well in the flour and salt. Mix togethr and put into the two tins.

5. Leave in a warm place to rise and then bake about 40 minutes at 190degC (375degF).


The bread turned out even better than I remember. Highly recommended!
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