Eggs!

We've got lots of chickens! At the moment we have 3 1/2 trays of eggs sitting in the fridge sitting. And I'm worried it's not enough:
Yesterday I backed four portions of Lemon-Sour Cream cake from my trusty Edmond's Cook Book.
Today we had soft-boiled eggs with Asparagus and Toast soldiers.
That used up 2 dozen of eggs.
The children seem to be coming down with acute cases of hollow legs!
I'm scared.
How will I feed them?
At least I know that they are 100% free-range, the other day I got a bloody nose stomping through the bush looking for them!
The neighbours suggested selling my surplus eggs to the Lodge down the road, I don't think I'll have any surplus while the kids are having growth spurts.
Other than that, not much exciting, new or different on the food front.
Keeping busy raising the animals, so in 3-4 months time it'll be rabbit recipe time!

TTFN

Sourdough bread

Well, the first attempt didn't succeed. I've got another batch in the fridge. Once the air is a bit warmer and I have tidied out an airing cupboard I will give it another go.

Next up, another batch of Mozzarella. This time I have thick rubber gloves and should be able to stretch it at the right temperature without burning my fingers.

Sourdough, first step

After almost 3 days of sitting in the room the cup of milk seems to have finally soured. Now I've added a cup of flour and wait again for 2-4 days to see if "yeast is in residence" and it starts bubbling. Bubbling, and not mould growing!

My crock of Sauerkraut is happily bubbling away in the hot water cylinder cabinet, no bad smells so far!

The trial with freezing Quark was successful, which means I can keep surplus there in readiness for baking!

Off to bake some biscuits now, the southerly front has arrived and we need comfort food.

Having fun reading a very well written book!

On making your own bread!  So totally not-PC I'm loving it. It's the 1972 version of Bake your own bread and be healthier. I have to see if I can get some Blackstrap Molasses before I can get started with any of the recipes, I want to try and make it as healthy as possible. If the family doesn't like the taste I can still substitute other sweeteners for it. I'd love to make a proper Sourdough bread, I just have to get over the phobia of having to make and grow a starter dough. Maybe this book will just help me with that! Hopefully more later.

Haha, that was fun!

Just opened a bottle of bubbles, and our dog loves chasing the flying cork! Well, this time, as soon as the cork popped and she ran after it barking her head of, our adopted cat ran inside and started chasing the dog around the kitchen table! I had seen her the day before playing with one of them, and was wondering if she's trying to put a claim on that particular toy?!

Anyway, got a few spare minutes, not necessarily quiet time, but I thought I'd put the photos from last week up.
Spareribs dinner. That night hubby decided it would be better to have the big meals in the middle of the day.

Pizza: fresh made dough and home made Mozzarella. even though the texture wasn't quite text book, the flavour was all there.

Lentil soup with frankfurters. This is one of my favourite home comfort soups, not for the faint-of-heart, as the colour can be off-putting. BUT I love the taste, and the memories of warming up from the inside on a cold winter's day.

And then some baking: my style Panettone and Walnut&Onion bread, and Banana&Walnut cake.

Sunday Lunch...

...and past food exploits.

So, today for lunch we're having Pork chops cooked on onions in beer, with apple sauce, mashed potatoes, Spaetzle and beans.
A variation of a classic German lunch, Kasseler, which is normally served with Sauerkraut, mashed potatoes and apple sauce. I don't really like the tinned Sauerkraut, so last night I started a batch. I haven't done that in a long time, so it'll be interesting to find out in a fortnight if it worked. Or earlier if it didn't, as it starts smelling bad enough to make your toe nails curl up and fall out!

My bible for making the Sauerkraut and Kasseler, and all sorts of self-sufficiency topics has been an old book bought from the library AGES ago: Manual of Practical Homesteading And so far I can say, if you follow his advice down to the letter, even as a first timer you'll get some reasonable results! The only problem I have sometimes, it's all in US imperial measurements. But with scales that convert at the push of a button, or a good old fashioned calculator, pen and paper I have been able to make it work for me!

Here's what mine looks like: Calculations all over the pages, and bits falling out!










Another favourite cook book is my Edmonds Cookery Book.
Guess which one is mine!

  

That's it for today, last weeks' stuff I'll put up tomorrow!

Mozzarella in the making!

Today I decided tackling another cheese. And right in the middle of it I decided I should try recommending the book I'm using. Hence, hopefully, the link somewhere to Amazon. I'll try to make it work. Might take a post or two!
Not quite, the book I wanted to refer is an australian one, and not sold through Amazon.
But I have it on good authority that the Ricki Carroll one is the equivalent. So, a link to it!


Let's see if this worked.
TTFN

Woop woop

first post and not much to say.Waiting for the kids to go to school tomorrow and then I'll get started. thought about a weekly format, every Monday recount the culinary adventures encountered during the last week.

Today's results: Onion-walnut bread, Panettone and spare ribs for dinner.

TTFN