TWD Pecan Buns

We began making this on Saturday morning. If there's one thing we've learned about baking is that it's better when it's not hurried.

The sponge was made, we had breakfast and so ate the eggs to make the dough. Fast forward to Sunday. We made the sponge, made the dough, let it rise, deflated it, put it in the fridge. And then read the rest of the recipe. We need another 9 hours of daytime to make the buns. It will then be 11 at night. We have to leave for the airport at 5am. The buns are best eaten the same day. There will only be one hour of the same day left. This will have to go in the freezer and be resumed later. Not back till Wednesday. Here it is chillaxing in the fridge. So far so good. But was one of the instructions really " smear butter on every available kitchen surface and domestic appliance. Or was that just me?

TWD Hungarian Shortbread

TWD - Hungarian Shortbread

Everything about this was fabulous and will become a staple in our repertoire.  What did we like about it? The dough came together quickly in the food processor and then had an overnight rest in the fridge.  The jam was delicious on its own, as was the raw dough!  The grating method was so easy and it came out of the oven crispy on the bottom and top and soft on the inside.

Things we changed: we noticed that other TWDers were baking the bottom on its own then adding the jam so we did this too and got a crispy bottom layer.  We halved the dough recipe but made all of the jam recipe yet there seemed to be only just enough jam - how would it have covered the whole amout of dough?  Anyway, thumbs up from us.

TWD Lemon Loaf

Easy to make but...... Just not worth it. Far better cakes out there which are just as easy to make. None of it was eaten so it has been wrapped in foil and put in the freezer for an emergency which requires a lot of underwhelming cake.

April Meal Planning

The draft meal plan for April.

Not all lunches planned for first week due to Easter holidays and being at home - we often have a substantial brunch of eggs and porridge.  Some cooking and shopping will be necessary - not necessarily in the last week of the month - more likely this week whilst on holiday.  Only a little milk, vegetable and salad shopping needed so £100 ($160) looks like a manageable target.

April	Week 1 Wed April 4	Week 2 Wed April 11	Week 3 Wed April 18	Week 4 Wed 25
Lunch		Chicken stew Mince pot x 2	1 Salmon 2 Shami kebab rice and dal 3 Jacket potato/beans 4 5	1Beef Stew 2 Salmon 3 Chicken stew 4 Mince pot 5
Dinner	1 2 Shami kebabs, rice, 2 dal 2 Jacket potato and mince pot 3 Salmon, new potatoes, veg 4  2 Lasagne 5 Soup with ravioli and bread	1 Jacket potato and mince pot with salad 2 2 Lasagne 3 2 Dal and chapatti 4 Salmon pasta 5 Kitcheree pot 6 Chicken stew	1 Salmon and veg 2 Beef stew 3 2 Shami kebabs, rice, big dal pot 4 Big mince, potatoes, spinach/ peas with rice 5 Big dal/ rice 6 Jacket potato/beans	1 Salmon/veg 2 2 Mince pots with veg and chapatti 3 Big dal and rice, 2 kebabs 4 Jacket potato and beans 5 Chicken stew 6 Miso soup and dumplings
Shopping	Eggs	Salad Stew vegetables	Baking potatoes salmon veg	Vegetables for: Salmon  Mince  Stew  Soup

4 s dal

4 b dal

4 samosas

9 shami kebabs

7 pots mince

1 big mince

5 portions lasagne

12 portions salmon

12 drumsticks

2 tubs chicken

0.4 kg stewing beef

Cheese

Dumplings

Croutons

Ravioli for soup

4 ruglach rolls, 1 chocolate pastry dough

Curry leaves, Chilli, Lemongrass, Thyme

Peas Spinach

Want to see inside our fridges?

In late January of this year I decided to do a fridge and freezer inventory which then led to a February meal plan - a whole month meal plan. I was quite pleased with myself: it emptied the freezer, we knew what we were eating everyday, there was less washing up. The worst part?  Using Mysuperrmarket.com I worked out that we had over £300 worth of food in stock, but it felt like we had nothing to eat.  The best part, however, was a food bill of £97.13 compared to a January spend of £222.99 and March spending of £133.94. The aim for April is to spend £100 on food.
Shall we have a look at what's inside the fridges?

Fridge 1 Vegetables, fruit and nuts

Cheese, milk, butter, ghee, eggs

Fridge 2 Sauces and condiments

The mouldy lurkers: parsnips, ginger, spouting garlic, and a squidgy potato.

Ants on a log.... otherwise known as fresh turmeric on a dudhi.

In the cupboards



3kg basmati rice
6kg Atta flour
6kg strong bread flour (not shown)
Pasta (spaghetti, spirals, orzo, lasagne)
9kg of pulses (toor, chickpeas, mung, masoor)
Panko breadcrumbs

Tea..720 bags plus green tea, 6 cans of tomato soup, 4 cans of chopped tomatoes, 3 pots of baked beans, 3 cans of sweetcorn, 2 cans of mackerel

The freezer

Mystery Pots

4 small pots of dal
4 big pots of dal
4 samosas
9 shami kebabs
7 pots mince
1 big pot of mince
5 portions lasagne
12 portions salmon
12 drumsticks
2 tubs chicken
0.4 kg stewing beef
Cheese
Dumplings
Croutons
Ravioli for soup
4 ruglach rolls (Tuesdays with Dorie)
1 chocolate pastry dough (Tuesdays with Dorie)

1 Portion Pizza Rustica (Tuesdays with Dorie)
Curry leaves
Chilli
Lemongrass
Peas 
Spinach
Thyme

Now all I have to do is turn it into a meal plan

Here is February's meal plan.  I began by crossing off items on the computer version but eventually stuck it on the fridge with a magnet and used a pencil!  The idea was that we'd stick to the allocated meals for the week as much as possible, but were free to choose from another column if we wanted.  It worked well but the breakfast row will be left out next time.  For obvious reasons.  Lunch is leftovers from the previous day apart from at the weekend when we tend to cook more.  For example, a "mystery pot" is an unlabelled pot of food from the freezer, probably, but not always curry or dal.  But "dal and rice" means that the dal and rice will have to be cooked from scratch.

 


 

Week 1

Wed Feb 1st
 

Week 2

Wed Feb 8th
 

Week 3

Wed Feb 15th

Half Term
 

Week 4

Wed Feb 22nd
 
 

Breakfast
 

Eggs
Eggs
Porridge
Porridge
Porridge
Porridge
Porridge

 

Eggs
Eggs
Porridge
Porridge
Porridge
Porridge
Porridge

 

Eggs
Eggs
Porridge
Porridge
Porridge
Porridge
Porridge

 

Eggs
Eggs
Porridge
Porridge
Porridge
Porridge
Porridge

 
 

Lunch
 

Chicken and mystery pot cauliflower
Tuna pasta
Salmon and lentils
Miso Soup and bean fritters (2 each)

 

Mystery pot veg curry rice
Refried bean sandwiches
 Salmon, veg and baked potato
Tuna pasta
Dal and rice

 

Single lasagna pot and single soup
Tuna pasta
Miso soup and veg dumplings
 Egg brunch
Dal and rice

 

Refried bean sandwiches
Tuna pasta
 Soup and ravioli
Thai(ish) soup and chicken meatballs
Dal and rice

 
 

Dinner
 

Mystery pot veg curry and rice 
Mystery pot 2 sm. veg curry and rice/bread
Baked potato and mystery pot (2 sm. veg curry plus some paneer)
Salmon and lentils
Miso potato and carrot soup with prawn dumplings (2 each)
 Tuna pasta
Dal and rice

 

 Mystery pot lasagna
Mystery pot ( 2 small cauliflower and potato and one one other for lunch tomorrow too) 
Mushroom Risotto Delia pg. 125
Tuna pasta
 Salmon, veg and baked potato
Feta impossible pie
Dal and rice

 

Mystery pot cawl
Yellow freezer soup with lamb freezer kebabs
Medium mystery pot of potato and veg curry and rice/rotis 
Tuna pasta
Freezer  Chicken leg soup
Tomato pasta
Dal and rice



 

Tuna pasta
Soup and ravioli
Thai(ish) soup and chicken meatballs
Spinach potato and paneer curry
Tomato pasta
Dal and rice
Aglio olio



 
 
 

TWD Pizza Rustica

Our version of this quiche-with-attitude is with smoked salmon. Everything about this worked well: the pastry came together well in the food processor and had a little rest whilst we mixed the filling in a bowl. It smelled lovely whilst baking and we managed to let it cool completely before slicing off a chunk....and reheating it!

Crispy pastry, firm filling, clean slices. Perfect.

TWD - Baking with Julia - Irish Soda Bread

Here's our attempt at Soda bread. Very easy and I quite like crust.
We also used some of the dough to make cookies by mixing in sugar and oats (bottom let) and of course we're still making white bread! (top left)

Here we have everything read to go!

Just a little mix...

TWD - Baking with Julia - Rugalach

This was for us a three day baking event. The first day we made the pastry and then left it in the fridge. The second day we made the filling etc and rolled the Rugalach. The final day was cutting to shape, topping and baking.

Here we have the sugar mix for the filling in the background and the nut and sugar mix for the topping in the foreground.

We didn't have lekver so we used apricot preserve.

Rolling was quite hard to start... I did think that it might have been easier to roll it in paper... maybe next time.

We also made a second version using Nutella (chocolate spread), the same sugar and cinnamon mix and chopped nuts. This was delicious and we recommend it!

Hey presto, the finished article.... there was a lot more... for awhile :)

TWD - Baking with Julia - Chocolate Tart

Chocolate tart isn't really our cup of tea.  We like a nice cheeseboard like this one we had had the Pipe and Glass near Beverley in East Yorkshire.

However, in the spirit of Tuesdays with Dorie, we had a go!

Recipies that begin with instruction to first turn to page xyz usually make us want to go and lie down in a dark room! However, first we made Biscotti (see page 313) and then chocolate dough. The biscotti were very easy to make and something to look forward to again in the challenge.

Despite some very 'rustic' looking tart cases.........

...... they actually looked Ok once filled  (our photographic skills obviously need some work!) and tasted delicious!

We found Jen's links to David Ogonowski's Youtube videos a great help. It gave us the confidence to make the pastry more crumbly the second time round. Non of the tarts lasted long and we will definitely make them again.

We did have a second go.  The remains of that attempt are on the bottom of the oven still.  Hint: do not put pastry shell directly onto oven runners.

There'll be a third attempt shortly.  :-)

TWD - Baking with Julia - White Loaves

All set and ready to go... our first Tuesday with Dorie

We have been looking forward to this since Christmas and have been gathering equipment, scouring the blogs of other TWDers and talking about bread.

Cost of bread so far:

1 Kenwood Chef £369

1 Baking with Julia £16.50

2 Loaf tins £29.98

2 sets of weighing scales £30

1 set of American measuring cups £7.99

1 measuring cup £4.99

Total = £458.46 ($724.36)

....... and lots of strong flour and unsalted butter

All ingredients measured / weighed and ready to go..

The dough all mixed and ready for first rise..

In the tin and after second rise.

Out of the oven....

I very pleasing crumb and crust :)

Same dough but a plait loaf..

We actually made this recipe several times over - more from having perfectionist tendencies than loving the result.  But, we have scoffed the outcome and enjoyed it.  Even more enjoyable was learning about bread, ingredients, oven position, our weird ovens, no-knead bread, the importance of salt, having yeast that isn't up against its use-by date, taking photographs of food with a DSLR....and learning how to use our lovely new stand mixer.

Here's some of our previous attempts: These are actually mini loaves (or buns!) note the 10p coin on the board.

Here we have a bit of a selection

We have made bread before but never so frequently and with so much enthusiasm and attention to detail.  Although we are already reading the chocolate tart recipe and preparing shopping lists, we now have 7.5kg (16.5 lbs) of flour and we have the bread bug and its going to be a regular part of our weekly meals.

The butter seemed like a strange addition - we've read that it makes a softer loaf - but there was so much of it.  It prompted me to have a sneak peek ahead at the brioche recipe  - that sounds like buttery fun!

Pears

We came across this walking near Dumbleton hall at the weekend. It's the middle of winter and this tree looks like it should be dead but it had the most amazing looking pears!