The Weekend is Here.

Posted on January 8, 2016 by anthonypickering

As per my post on going back to work and in particular the article on your life being planned for you my weekend is packed.

BUT trying to keep it cheap and cheerful much to do and a lot of projects that don’t need money and the kids and A. can join me in 🙂

Till then waste not, the extra tortillas from the fine folks from La Tortilla being air dried in my oven. I will turn them into real corn chips tomorrow. These where left over after two meals we have already had from the packet we bought home from our local farmers market.

Not home made but go to love traditional Mexican method of making up ground Australian corn and some salt (the only ingredients on the packet). These are a go to on our menu and I will be going into the go to meals we do on weekly basis next week.

See you over the weekend.:)

3 More things.

Posted on January 7, 2016 by anthonypickering

Bill Gates used to say do an extra thing each day and that will be another 365 things you get done for the year.

Me I am believer in the rounding function so for me do 3 extra things each day and you will have over a 1000 extra things done each year 🙂

One of the myths I often see in the alternative world is this thought a simple life being easy. It is harder than most people realise and that is part of the problem in a world where we expect life to cut us chances. But also more rewarding , or at least I think so.

So tonight’s 3 …

Sorted two barrow loads of bricks from the pile and cleaned those that needed it. For the next section of paving.

More firewood from down the street

The Daily Bread as always before bed.

Time for sleep 🙂

Working with or against Nature? (fat hen spanakopita)

Posted on January 4, 2016 by anthonypickering

I visited my parents place over the Christmas period had a really nice relaxing time. Foraged some items, took the family to a few different places but mostly just relaxed.

My father is the king of the drip system. He has beautiful rich red volcanic soil that is free draining, very free draining as such he tends to drip water the plants and along with 40 plus years of adding organic matter to the soil means his vegies grow incredibly well.

Because of this he also has minimal weed issues how ever one thing I did note that fat hen sometimes called lambs ear (Chenopodium album), dock and the purslane where doing really well.

I grabbed some purslane to plant at my place and grabbed a large bag of fat hen which I made into spanakopita (recipe below).

To me it is interesting that this high protein crop that by my father’s admission (he is a rabid anti weed man 🙂 ) the chickens and sheep love is torn out spayed out and treated with disdain.

And there it is growing without water or love and just doings its own good thing. From a point of view of plants we are going to have to start to look at what will work by itself without lots of inputs or work and this is potentially a great option for fodder and food. The broad acre style of farming the crops you want rather that what will grow easily is simply not going to hold true in the long run.

And much to my father annoyance his granddaughter loves the fresh leaves of this plant and now it is naturalised in my back yard we have access to it for salads, cooking or as fodder for the chickens.

As for the taste of the spanakopita. A. and I made up two batches of rolls and a pie with a half side fat hen and half spinach and apart from being slightly more beefy texture the kids and wife could not tell them apart and all was eaten.

This is one good weed.

Recipe for Fat Hen (or spinach) Spanakopita.

Packet of filo or puff pastry (or if you are a better cook than me make your own 🙂 )
3 eggs
150 gram of feta
75 grams of ricotta
75 grams of quark cheese (could use another 75 grams of ricotta)
2 bunches of spinach or equivalent or more of fat hen.( I like lots of green in my mix) shredded.
Butter melted and a brush
Two onions finely diced.
1 or 2 Sprigs of mint finely sliced (to taste)
1 or 2 Sprigs of dill finely sliced (to taste)
Dash of nutmeg.
Salt and Pepper to taste.

Mix all ingredients apart from the melted butter and pastry in a large bowl.

Lay out the filo or puff pastry. If using filo make sure you keep a damp towel over it put brushed melted butter over each sheet as you layer them. A. helped me with this process as two people make this easier. We use 3 or so layers for a roll and 3 or so layers top and then same bottom in a pie. Puff pastry is just one layer.

Spoon mix onto the pastry sheets and roll or make into pies. Do not over fill.

Butter top and make sure you butter the tray they are sitting on.

Put in an oven at 150 to 170 degrees Celsius till cooked through and browned (about 45 minutes) slow cook is a better option for your health than the western desire to deep fry/fast cook everything.

Once cooked leave to stand for 5 minutes before serving with a nice salad.

Saturday Woo Hoo

Posted on January 2, 2016 by anthonypickering

Yep all excitement at the urban hippie household. Saturday and baking peasant bread half with breakfast cheese in the middle of it as an experiment. The excitement never ends. 🙂

Been a busy day and got a lot done but more on that tomorrow.

On the upside the sloe whisky is good.

New Year New Life – Lacto Ginger Beer Starter

Posted on January 1, 2015 by anthonypickering

It seems apt at the start of the new year with nice warm (if variable weather) above 20 degrees Celsius that I start a lacto fermented ginger beer starter 🙂

With the warm weather on the way being able to produce some natural ice cold drinks is also a good driver 🙂

I have done lacto fermented starters before and they have worked out well but died off over winter due to neglect.

I am starting this one a bit differently to the other one less water and the addition of some molasses to add some trace elements to the mix after some conversations with friends.

To make start with.

2 – 3 tablespoons of grated organic ginger (if you are not using organic soak it for a few days to get the chemicals out that can stop the fermentation process).
Equal amount of unrefined sugar to the amount of ginger you are using.
1 teaspoon of molasses
Filtered or boiled and cooled water to room temperature about twice as any table spoons as the sugar (a bit less a bit more no issue)

The biggest trick is to make sure you sterilise everything as much as you can for me this means a kettle of boiling water and making sure that you don’t put things like teaspoons on the bench top between uses, or forgetting to sterilise the knife used to cut the ginger. It can seem a bit excessive but it will help in the long run.

Mix it all together and leave for two days in a nice warm spot in your kitchen where you can keep an eye on it then add a ½ table spoon of grated ginger and a ½ tablespoon of sugar each day for 5 days. Should be bubbling nicely well before then 🙂

Time to get out and enjoy the garden on this new years day 🙂

Finishing Christmas with a simple meal and simple lesson in life

Posted on December 28, 2014 by anthonypickering

So we have had our Christmas splurge. In reality ours while generous it was not the masses of excess I have seen other years or from others.

I will say this, it may be the crowd I hang with but the year seems to be a lot quieter at this time of year. A great many people are simply not buying into the sales and mess (could have been spending Christmas in a depressed regional centre as well)

Our Christmas plans were interrupted to a degree by a bought of gastro in the house. We ended up simplifying them and reduced travel time by 2-3 hours and the pace just felt a lot more relaxed.

We ended up at my parents, dry and warm but quiet and relaxed.

The meals for us where generous but relatively simple, presents where practical and not ostentatious and the main thing was simply time spent with family. In time this will become the norm rather than the exception. The decline perhaps has already begun with a great many people so the chance for waste and excess will become less.

On the last day at my parents place we decided to head to the local trout farm as we had promised the children that they could try fishing and sitting on a river bank for 4 hours to get nothing will not attract children to fishing (it put me off most fishing 🙂 ).

So we spent about an hour got 9 beautiful rainbow trout

Cooked simply n a BBQ nothing better. A salad from my parents’ house, chips from their own potatoes. Simple but good.

And the kids well they again know where the food came from and the only comment was from the 5 year old that she would eat the fish but not bloody 🙂

Guest post on Ranting’s of an Amateur Chef.

Posted on December 24, 2014 by anthonypickering

So I have been a follower of the Ranting chef for several years.

I am honoured he offered me a guest post and had a post I was about to put together for something A. and I have been eating a fair bit later that I thought would suite.

To me he the ranting chef is a constant. Every day in rolls another email about a meal to make.

My wife often comments can go to a fridge and pull together a meal from what appears to be nothing. It is a skill I used living in share houses in London when I lived there in the 90’s it is skill that allows me to save money and means we waste little.

Perhaps the first step in people taking back some control of their lives is cooking their own meals and knowing what is in them. Cooking from scratch should not be in the realm of master chef style reality television shows or only the realm of celebrity chefs it should be a day to day thing. Shown to be easy skill it really is.

With knowing what comes in your meal is the ability to mix in the few ingredients have in your garden you started gardening in or the items you have never seen before from the local farmers market.

The Ranting Chef blog shows this day by day, week by week, building up skills and using ingredients.

His stamina is also quite impressive in regards to rolling out blog posts as a blogger who is an absentee writer a lot of the time I know how hard to roll out a post almost every day for years at a time.

http://rantingchef.com/2014/12/23/guest-post-anthony-meat-balls-and-zoodles/

The Perfect Imperfect Fathers Day.

Posted on September 9, 2014 by anthonypickering

As most of you know I am wary of the tales that we tell as bloggers of all good and the shining light of our lives. It has been described as the ‘highlights’ version of life on facebook. People comparing their lives with all of its ups and down with the highlights people post on facebook. All ups and no downs all sun and roses.

It is not always so as we know.

For me I had a great father’s day. My wife took number three of to her sewing day and I was left with the other two. I cooked a magnificent roast of lamb while she was away (she cannot stand the smell of cooking lamb) baked bread, made two type of soup and had our neighbour over for dinner even got the new wicking bed in place and level.

This is the sunny all light version.

I could mention that my five year old daughter made the most perfect and beautiful remark that it was lovely outside and ‘we should eat outside’. BUT then I would need to tell you that we ate inside because I caught them climbing over the safety glass and had to rescue them. Twice …

I could tell you how they played like angels in the back yard… for a while until they found sticks and proceeded to pound on anything that didn’t move including my plants.

I could tell you of the feeling of pride as my son and daughter taking the weeding I had done to feed the chickens and ducks but then having to stop my son from pulling out all of my garlic.

And at the end of it all I would have to tell you that on father’s day I spent more time yelling ‘ don’t do that’, ‘put it down’, ‘what are you doing’ and ‘go to your room’ than I heard I love you dad (although I did hear that from all of them a number of times 🙂 )

I am blessed in the urban hippie household and I don’t ever, ever forget it, but don’t have any illusions we have the same issues as everyone else.

I am behind in my diploma, more work than I can handle at the office (I come like a zombie) and the hybrid life style I lead means I haven’t even got all the seeds I need for the upcoming season planted.

Our lives are what they are ups and downs. Without the downs there is no contrast for the ups.

In the end all we have is time so just remember that and try to look at anyone selling ‘it is sunshine and roses all the time’ message from a blog or an article with a smallish grain of salt.

Speaking of salt see below for some gratuitous shots of the alchemy a leg of lamb, salt, pepper and herbs along with slow cooking will perform.

Method.

Bring roast to room temperature, slice some holes and insert 3 or so cloves of garlic (you don’t need to peel them. Also make some holes and push in 2 -3 rosemary springs as far as you can. Rub the roast in olive oil then give it a liberal coating of good salt flakes (I use Maldon) and a good grind of black pepper. Roast in preheated oven at 240 degrees Celsius of 20 minutes then drop to 150 degrees Celsius and cook for 3 hours.

Let it rest for 10-15 minutes before serving.

Organic Yep there is Fauna.

Posted on August 8, 2014 by anthonypickering

This is the non cool view of organic food. This is from my father and as you can see it is more than healthy.

I found this when working out what I could make from what I had in the house . With A. staying home for 12 months for number 3 (more on that later) our budget is being pounded (however there is still a lot of fat in there to be honest compared to many) and we are living on what is in the house and what we have.

So we had a nice cabbage from my father and some cooked rice we had for dinner the night before with some left over curry. So my thought cabbage rolls.

We did a big purchase of meat from a local farmer at the farmers market and some of the good bacon, a leek, and a few bits and pieces. Below is the recipe I used. So there was a meal for last night along with fresh bread just made and still warm.

This needs to be the philosophy for all, what you have, what is local, a few luxury items and not letting anything to go to waste.

Cabbage Rolls

For the rolls

500 grams of mince
Leek finely sliced
2 cloves of garlic
3 rashes of the good bacon diced
A cabbage cored and as leaves.
2 -3 cups of rice
1 tsp of cumin
1 tsp of smoked paprika
1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg
Salt and pepper to taste
2 eggs to bind
Bowl of iced water to quench the leaves.
2 table spoons of passatta sauce.
Grated cheese.
½ cup red wine
Bread crumbs

Sauce

Two cans of organic tomato. Buy European organic if you can (I know not local) as they have rules on BPA in the lining
½ cup red wine
½ cup of water
Table spoon of molasses
Salt and pepper to taste
4 bay leaves
A handful of perennial basil or other herbs (optional)
Teaspoon of chilli or to taste.

Fry up the bacon and leek and add the mince, cook till almost brown then add the garlic crushed for a further 2 minutes add the spices for a further 1 minute. Add the red wine and passatta. After 5 minutes add the cooked rice. Cook for a couple of minutes until mixed through. Drop into another bowl to cool.

Blanch cabbage leaves 4 or so at a time for around 1 minute in lightly salted water. Refresh them in iced water and drain in a colander.

Mix all of the ingredients for the sauce ready to add.

Once the filling has cooked add some cheese (of your choice) and two eggs to bind. Mix through and add bread crumbs till the mixture is no longer sloppy.

Once the filling is ready put a tablespoon or so in each blanched leaf and fold, putting the fold down the bottom. Fill the container with rolls ladle over the sauce and either put in an oven until the sauce has thickened or on stove top till the same.

I served it with grated cheese but some sour cream would be nice as well.

We need to get over the fact that there will be bugs that things will not be perfect in our vegetables. Be grateful we have food and help out the world by eating what is there not what is perfect. We cannot in the long term afford to ask farmers to throw away straight banana’s or bent carrots. And why should we?

10 minute bread kind off…

Posted on August 7, 2014 by anthonypickering

I got some comments on my facebook timelines to on the bread photo’s I have been posting that it was delayed gratification. And to a degree it is 🙂 but short of buying it in a shop this is the easiest and quickest bread I have ever made and it is SOOOOO GOOOOOOOOOD.

One of the things I looked at in July was no plastic July. We didn’t do it as it is a bit hard with only one of us really on this path (I sneak it in when I can 🙂 ) what I did look at was at what plastic we had and how we could reduce it. One of the things I noticed was plastic bread bags and those nasty little clips that close them. Add to this if you look at the list of ingredients on a loaf of bought bread you will go ‘what the …’ so I decided while I am on leave I would get the bread making down pat so I can do it couple of times a week. This is the link to the original recipe I used I have consolidated it as below. It takes less than 10 minutes in all steps but there is proofing and resting time as well as cooking time. I still love that this can be done in around 3 hours so come home from work and have fresh bread for the next day.

Step 1.

Fill measuring cup or bowl with ½ cup of freshly boiled water and 1 and ½ cups of tap water. Add a table spoon of sugar. Mix. Sprinkle a packet or two teaspoons of dried yeast over the top of the water and leave for 10 minutes in a warm spot. (I use Tandaco sachets but need to find a bulk supplier of yeast to avoid those nasty little foil wrappers (we do what we can)).

Work Time 30 seconds.

Step 2.

Put 4 cups of plain flower and two teaspoons of salt in a bowl and mix with a wisker to incorporate.

Work Time 1 minute.

Step 3.

Once the 10 minutes is up and the yeast is nice and frothy, mix into the water and pour into the flour mixture and mix through thoroughly. The dough should be quite wet so add a bit more water if it looks dry.

Cover in a tea towel and put in a nice warm spot and leave for 2 hours (you can leave for less but this is the best time I have found)

Work Time 3 minutes.

Step 4.

The dough should have risen nicely by now. Grease the bowls to be used for baking with a good coating of butter (don’t be tempted to use olive oil I tried it, didn’t work for me). Once buttered use two forks to divide the dough mix into two parts this will knock it down as well use the forks to separate the dough from the edge of the bowl and lift with the forks and drop each half into a buttered oven proof bowl. Put in a warm space for 30 minutes. It will rise a second time.

Work Time 3 minutes

Step 5.

After 30 minutes put the bowls in a pre-heated oven to at 220 degrees Celsius and set timer for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes drop back the oven to 190 degree and set time for another 15 minutes.

Turn out the bread. If it is still a little pale. Put it back on the rack for 5 minutes out of the bowl to brown off (I never have to do this)

Let it rest for 10 minutes then eat 🙂

Work Time 2 minutes

Total Work Time 9 ½ minutes.

The bread is great warm and toasts nicely but doesn’t brown as much as commercial bread. It last ok for few days but will not last like store bought bread as it has no preservatives in it (this is a good thing FYI)

This will become a regular for us moving forward. Cost wise because we purchase good organic flour the cost is about $1.50 per loaf only about $1.20 cents less than I can get at Aldi or a local supermarket on special but this adds up when I work out a 4 loaves a week over a year it works out at $250 saving per year. Nothing to be sneezed at.

But the big thing is I know what is in this bread. It also means that there is a few less plastic bags and clips in the world. A little less food km and more money out of the corporate system.

The latest reports on plastic in oceans is not pleasant reading and honestly cleaning up is great and we have to do this but first thing we need to do is to make sure as little as possible gets into it from now on! Every single piece makes a difference 1 item per Australian per week not kept out of the waste stream is 1,196,000,000 objects. Yes a lazy 1.2 billion items out of the waste stream every year if we are careful. Still don’t think that your little part in this little country can make a difference?

I am NOT an urban hippie

The rampant ramblings of someone trying to live a greenish life while seeing the world. From Melbourne Australia to the United Kingdom to the Netherlands this is a look at life as lived.

Category Archives: Food