Elderflower cordial

Posted on October 2, 2013 by anthonypickering

So now the equinox is gone and daylight savings will not start till the end of the week I am finding I am up at 5am and it is light enough to see and move around the garden in.

For those who do not know the best times to pick elderflowers is early morning and dusk. The perfume of the flowers is at its best and the flavour as well. Although I have picked them at other times and the flavour seems fine I try to go by this tradition.

This morning I found myself awake and wandered out on the front porch and noticed the elderflowers had ripened and there would be enough to make a batch of elderflower cordial.

I started the kettle up and went out and picked about 30 flower heads and quickly put a batch together to start the infusing process. The cordial is great mixed simply with iced cold water or soda water it is a light refreshing drink in the heat of summer or a favourite is to add a shot Gin to the mix and then you have a great little mixer to sit back and enjoy looking at your garden in the evening.

So the mix was done in a few minutes and then it was the daily chores of cats and chickens and then off to work.

There is something satisfying to me that I can do this before heading off to my corporate day time job. It somehow makes me feel more alive, even though most of my day will tied to this work culture just a little bit of me is still out there enjoying the path less trodden.

Elderflower Cordial

5 litres boiling water
30 Elder Flower Clusters (I don`t wash them – aroma gets lost)
3 kilos sugar
10 lemons
125 grams of citric acid

This amount makes 6 litres of syrup. You only need about 1 – 2 cm per glass.

Put all the ingredients in a clean bucket, cover it with a tea towel and stir it every day with a sterilised spoon so that the sugar dissolves with time. I cut the lemons in half, squeeze them out and throw the peels in as well. After one week, sieve it through a cloth and fill it up into bottles.

That`s all. Have fun.

The original recipe I got from my family is to use cold water but as the elderflowers have natural yeast (handy for making champagne) that ferments I try to kill this off with hot water. It saves the bottles exploding or getting a hard liquor version of syrup.

A trick to fix the cloth in place over the bucket is to take enough twine to almost go around the bucket then tie both ends to rubber bands. That way I can easily remove the string no nots nothing to worry about and makes sure the towel or cloth stays in place.

Are we all making it easier to do nothing at all?

Posted on September 3, 2013 by anthonypickering

So I have been quiet again… nothing new there … (or NO news there 🙂 )

And have been contemplating why?

I had a think on father’s day as sick number 2 child was sleeping in the sun next to me and came to the conclusion I have been my own worst enemy in a number of ways recently. I have been looking at what I have been doing and going well that is not blog worthy, that is not environmental ‘enough’ and worst of all comparing. I think that other person is doing everything so much better than me. Look they are living in a yurt made of their own hair and fuelling it with their own dried dung while living entirely of raw foraged food…

Perfection is a dangerous, dangerous thing. It can easily paralyse us and make us look at what we are doing and says I can’t compete with that and simply give up. It is something those of us interested in a better world need to consider. Often near enough is a damn side better than not at all!

I think looking back on it that has been an issue with me over the last 6 or so months. Recently however I have had a couple of the shining examples that have held themselves out as the saviours of various parts of the world and I have been comparing myself to start to look not so perfect after all.

They don’t look bad, not even poor, quite good actually but not perfect.

It has made me consider that we all do what we can and judging yourself to harshly is counterproductive. I lost sight of why I am doing what “I” do and lost my own direction. So I am going to get back on the horse and live by the old motto below.

Do what you can, with what you have, where you are, when you can!

Now amusingly as we speak of full circles. Sunday was father’s day and strangely enough I had a ground hog moment when I realised that last father’s day I worked on my mini seed raising hot house and again I did the same thing this year.

The unit last year worked ok but had a few serious faults and lead to some losses so I wanted to do something a bit different and easier to use this year.

So it has had an upgrade with recycled windows replacing the builders plastic and it now has much better access as the two windows at the front are hinged which will mean I can see everything and easily access the seedlings to manage them and check on them (which is a major cause of failure last year).

I have moved it so it is not in the way but close enough and easy to get to keep an eye on it.(we live in this house it can’t just be my green playground)

I was lucky and have been harvesting the hard wast for a while and it made of repurposed material, an old shelf I found, some old shower screens for the ends, and windows I picked up as hard rubbish, even the boards are from a pallet I found. Only some of the screws are new.

In the end I like making stuff up from what others in our society perceive as no longer useful the environmental aspect is important but anyone using a cheap commercial mini hot house from Aldi or Bunning’s is still doing more for the environment than those who poo poo the purchases of such items on environmental grounds and do nothing.

Again do what you can with what you have! If I worked out all the environmental background noise of my cordless drill I used to build my mini hot house if I had only bought one for occasional use then the cheap plastic seed raising hot houses looks very good in comparison (no Congo gorilla parts for a start in the battery components or slave child labour to mine those materials)

To me not wasting that is the primary driver. Not spending $60 or $100 is a good thing as it allows me to utilise that money in a far more environmentally effective ways in the rest of my life style.

But as I don’t get to make stuff in my challenging white collar job it is kind of cool to make it myself which is as good a reason as any.

As you can see I still need to seal a few gaps and add some latches but it is a working unit now and will be for a number of years if I look after it.

Even without those steps I can now start to plant up some seeds and get into the doing what I can part for the coming spring.

A quick question. When was the last time you read about a complete failure on a blog by the blog poster? Something I need to rectify myself on this site from now on. I screw up recipes and other projects all the time and learn from them.

Expect to see some failures documented in the future. 🙂

Must be a Sunday morning in the Urban Hippie Household

Posted on June 30, 2013 by anthonypickering

Elderberry Syrup Cooking

Sourdough proofing

Mandarines vinegar made

Plate of fruit for kids morning tea.

Must be Sunday morning in the urban hippie household. Have a good day in the sunshine all

A Big Pot of Organised Goodness

Posted on May 10, 2013 by anthonypickering

So as with most people our weeks are very busy. Both of us work and the kids are in full time crèche life is busy but with winter and with the sick season on its way we still like to ensure that we eat well at a decent price without breaking the world during winter.

One of the solutions we have found is to put together a big pot of soup for the week. The kids get a good lunch at crèche and A. and I often eat leftovers from meals and lots of fruit and veg during the day so hearty soup, salad and sandwiches works well in a busy rush home and get the kids ready for bed evening.

We have a good number of soups we regularly do. One that is always a favourite is the leek and potato soup with parmesan rind. Pretty damn good, kids love it we love it but not really a great source of the mix of vegetables that promotes immune system and general health over winter (damn).

Two others that we make regularly are pumpkin/vegetable soup and minestrone. A big pot of one of these two soups would be made most weeks for us and we would get 2 -3 nights worth of meals with sandwiches and salads from it.

Both soups are great as they use lots of in season vegetables and use what is local and are very easy to make and are both very cheap. The can be made quickly and easily even with kids running around and organising a week night .

I am lucky I have access to good veggies I grow and from my parents and farmers markets we also use cheap off cuts of meats, these tends to be a very small amount often coming from things like prosciutto rind, de skinned sausages, bacon and off cuts of ham from our local boutique smoke house vendor. So as I said even on a budget these are easy to make and generally pretty good for you.

Easy Minestrone (big soup)

Ingredients

Meat as discussed above
Large onion diced
3 Carrots cut into 5mm pieces
3 sticks of celery cut into 5mm pieces
4 -5 gloves of garlic crushed
3 bay leaves
Big handful of fresh picked parsley
Springs of thyme
1.5 litres of stock (I typically use chicken stock)
Dash of white wine optional)
Good handful of short pasta (I tend to use wholemeal or spelt pasta but any will do)
¼ of a cup of passatta sauce
Can of white or borlotti beans, or frozen peas or some green beans.

A lot of my soups, stews and casseroles start with a mirepoix which is a French term for a mix of the carrot, onion and celery which is sweated down in a pot with a little olive oil. The only real trick is to not turn up the heat to high and to leave the lid on when sweating the vegetables. Under no circumstances do you want to let the vegetables brown at all. I tend to leave it for around 15 minutes and about ½ way through I throw in the garlic and bay leaves and herbs. Once the base has been sweated add the stock, wine and the passatta sauce and bring to the boil then simmer for 20 – 30 minutes (good time to get the kids bathed and in their PJ’s)

After the simmer time add the pasta for another 10 minutes at a simmer then add the beans and simmer for another 5 minutes (if you use fresh green beans add them with the pasta)

Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve with fresh herbs, some grated parmesan (or not) and drop of good olive oil. Freezes exceptionally well as lunches.

Pumpkin/Vegetable Soup.

This one takes a bit longer so best made on a Sunday or while making Mondays dinner and just get better as you reheat it.

For me the only difference between pumpkin and vegetable soup is that in pumpkin I use a lot more of the pumpkin where as in a vegetable soup I will use a greater mix of vegetables. The Veggie soup is great as a way touse up any leftover veggies you might have hanging around and again freezes well.

Ingredients

A piece of ham, bacon or smoked hock.
2 Large onion sliced
3 Carrots cut into 5mm pieces
3 sticks of celery cut into 5mm pieces
4 -5 gloves of garlic crushed
3 bay leaves
Big handful of fresh picked parsley
2 kg of pumpkin cubed
750 grams of potatoes
2 teaspoons of a good garam masala
1 teaspoon of turmeric powder
Fresh ground pepper
Salt to taste

As with the other soup above this one starts with a mirepoix which is a French term for a mix of the carrot, onion and celery which is sweated down in a pot with a little olive oil. The only real trick is to not turn up the heat to high and to leave the lid on when sweating the vegetables. Under no circumstances do you want to let the vegetables to brown at all. I tend to leave it for around 15 minutes and about ½ way through I throw in the garlic and bay leaves and herbs. Once the base has finished add the cubed pumpkin and potato add water to just cover the veg and bring to the boil. Add a good amount of salt the garam masala, pepper and turmeric. Add your piece of ham, bacon or hock and simmer till the potatoes and pumpkin are soft.

Stick blend it til your desired consistency. Serve with sour cream or yogurt. I like to add in some fried sliced chorizo on top as well .

The kids love a good cheese toastie to go with it this and I have a few ways to make it and one of our favourite is to use the Lebanese flat bread, fill with grated cheddar cheese and a little mustard, butter both sides and put in a press grill. Comes out crispy and cheese filled for the kids (and big kids) to dip into the soup.

Writers Block… Yep got it that is for sure.

Posted on May 2, 2013 by anthonypickering

It is not that I have not had any idea’s or even had tales and items to write about but I just cont seem to get them down in words. A couple of times a day I have a good blog in my head and then when it comes to writing it get caught up in whatever else I let myself get distracted with.

I am now just going to sit down and start writing so if it comes out as junk some days so be it you guys can always unsubscribe if it gets that bad 🙂

The last three weeks have been busy and I will write about them as I can. I went on juice diet for 15 days. The diet is a detox diet based around the fat sick and nearly dead documentary. It was a success with me feeling great at the end of the diet. Lost a good bit of weight and my liver appears to be much happier. I have done this last year and had a similarly good experience in regards to weight loss and keeping it off but also in some other health aspects. I plan to also do a vegan diet in spring to get my body working again.

The thing about this sort of radical diet is that it is not that radical. It is in the modern world but in times not so distant fasting and hunger where a part of our lives we are designed for it. And the type of fasting on vegetables is particularly good for us as is gives us a nutrient burst that for times such as spring allow us to get our bodies functioning and on track.

I still cooked for my family and it is interesting once you are on this diet how you look at food and how our society deals with food differently.

I eat a lot of good food (one of the reasons I need to fast, one of the reasons most people need to fast once in a while) and most of it is seasonal and cooked from scratch where possible.

The thing that strikes you is the sheer volume of food available and the amount of advertising that goes with the food. It is everywhere and very pervasive and not eating and being aware of it you almost get to step outside the subliminal side of things and see why people are packing on so much weight.

I still did my gardening, did exercise and walked to and from public for work and I didn’t feel weak at all.

Not sure if I will do this diet later in the year. Think once a year about 12 days would be optimal but I am going to do a 21 day vegan diet in spring. This is both an idea that Chinese medicine and also the paleoarchaeology types who study us from a historical point of view recomentd. For both a good amount of bitter greens and a high nutrient low calorific diet in spring helps the liver get back in shape after a winter of stored food (typically comfort foods for us now)

I did get to add in a bit of urban hippieness into the diet. Green smoothee’s of Kale, dandelion leaf, nightshade leaf, mallow leaf, cleavers, nasturtium and even a few of my precious nettles (although they are being saved for soup, gnocchi and pasta) from my back yard made the diet cheaper and easier this time and allowed me a side line of interest to help keep me going.

I am adding more weeds all the time into our diet and this is working well, the kids love them and in our societies nutrient poor energy rich foods, the weeds being the opposite makes for something we should all be eating more off.

FYI the weed walk with Adam Grubb is on for those in Melbourne in a couple of weeks time. Check out the link and attend if you can it is a great walk well worth the money and time. You will never look at a grassy field the same ever again.

Passing on the skills

Posted on April 25, 2013 by anthonypickering

There seems to me nothing more appropriate than Nana teaching her granddaughter how to make Anzac biscuits on Anzac Day.

In some countries they have the skills of the grandmothers day. This is most days when my children visit their grandparents 🙂

making it yourself

Posted on March 23, 2013 by anthonypickering

Why make it yourself?

This is often the question that I get asked?

It has been a busy, busy week. You know when the proverbial fertiliser has hit the wind displacement device when you have to do two weeks of work to be able to take a week off to go on holidays. To say my current work load is unsustainable is to state the bleeding obvious. This is a story for another day though.

Added to that I have had some issues with the second car and we are trialling having only one car and me using public and the bike as my mode of transport to and from work. this is working out well but means I have to be a bit more disciplined and means it requires more organisation.

So that has been the reason for no posts over the last weeks. We have however been trying to keep living the life and to a greater extent we have been.

I have cooked meals for friends and family and we have offered friends to stay in our house rather than paying for accommodation and keep the money go round going. We have carted our kids, and still grown our food and all this with a couple of people working far too long hour’s is it any wonder we need a holiday 🙂

I try to cook our meals as much as is possible from scratch that is not to say that I don’t use some items such as yellow curry, garam massala mixes and items like mustard (although I will be making my own mustard soon enough)

Last weekend I made up a porchetta with fresh herbs from my garden for dinner, pancakes with no mix. We ate veg and salads from our garden including a tomatoes and basil salad with 5 different types of tomato and3 types of basil. During the week we ate meals that we had cooked for lunches and I started the week with $45 in my pocket and ended the week with $43 in it and no sense of hunger or having missed out.

So why go to the trouble of making our own from scratch especially when we appear to be time poor? Well the cost is a major issue. We don’t work to work, we work to allow us to get ahead and in time. If we work long hours and just waste the money then we are going backwards.

I also like the challenge of doing things from scratch. I talk a lot on this blog about the developing of skills. Making it yourself makes you less of a slave to the system and ensures that if the time comes when you cannot easily buy the service you can always do it yourself.

It also means I know what the inputs into something are, especially useful with cooking and knowing what our bodies and the bodies of our children get put into them.

It gives a real sense of the cost of things to the world. Sometimes it is not cheaper such as the bacon I make. I can buy cheap bacon for much less than I can make. But that would factory farmed pork, in unsustainable practices to a large multinational taking the money of shore. And it does make you wonder what the final cost to the world of such an item really is when you realise it costs me twice as much to make it and I don’t even consider the labour involved.

So it makes you look at the world differently.

It makes you realise what real things should taste, feel and be like. Not the bland hand to mouth no thought I will buy more stuff to make me feel better lifestyle.

And the final reason is that it is interesting and fun. Which helps to keep me sane on the stupid go round that is the culture we often deal with.

As I have said a part of the week as been in seeing if we can cope with out the second car. Our kids love the simple joy of being carted by us in the bike trailer from crèche rather than by car and despite the organisation and discipline the time spent carting the kids has reacquainted me in an odd way with the world around me as I cart the kids or walk to and from the station I check out the herbs. See mallow and mallow cheese in abundance, edible nightshade, dandelion and other ‘weeds’. I also see some interesting things people. Guerrilla gardening, by putting plots in unused spaces, wild harvesting and gathering. Keep an eye out for items I can use later on and the huge waste of space that we have in the cities that could be used to solve a great many of the problems we have from homelessness to growing our own fuel and food to connecting as a community.

It is also feels a damn side more useful than a lot of people I see rushing home so they can change to go out to do some exercise…

So while busy the week has been good with more time in many ways than most to look at the world and enjoy the time with family and friends.

This week I am in Apollo bay for the week with family for a beach side holiday. Tomorrow we will catch up with Libby from libby cooks for a meal including quite a few foraged dishes and we will then explore the area, hopefully do a bit of foraging and just enjoy the time with family.

If I don’t post I will definitely have to come up with a new excuse other than work 🙂 wont I ?

Homemade Porchetta.

Butterfly a roast and lay flat on a chopping board. I left the roast in the fridge uncovered for 5 hours to allow the skin to dry out to get the best crackling prior to this step.

Dry toast 2 teaspoons of cumin seeds.

In mortar and pestle or the food processor in a pre apocalypse kitchen put together a selection of fresh herbs from the garden, lots of basil (or basil mint as I used in this case) and parsley are a must, as is garlic and some rosemary (not too much) other than that just use what you have. I used oregano, thyme and sage as well and could have added some French tarragon I had if I wanted to. A little bit of salt and pepper and some chilli to taste. Blend with as little olive oil as you can to make a smooth but not sloppy paste.

Spread over one side of the butterflied roast, grate a little lemon zest on the top and then roll and secure the roast with twine or wet skewers.

Liberally coat the skin olive oil and salt and fresh black pepper.

Pre heat an oven to 250 degree Celsius

Put roast in for 30 minutes and you should see the crackling start to blister. Drop the heat back t 150 degrees for 2 hours or so then ramp the temperature back up to 250 degrees for the last 20 minutes until the crackling is perfect.

Serve it? We had simple boiled Dutch cream potatoes and other vegetables to go with it.

Any leftover should be sliced thickly and eaten on sourdough for lunches 🙂

Photos of the making of porchetta below.

Cordial and Summer Days

Posted on March 10, 2013 by anthonypickering

This is another story of community as a bit of bad luck would lead me to. For those getting sick of this subject there is a nice recipe for a orange, lemon and honey cordial and you can bypass the rest of this post 🙂

So we decided to head up country for couple of days and visit my parents. Get out of the city and lets the kids spend a couple of days with their grandparents running around in nature.

Given the luck we have had with anything related to automobiles it was perhaps a given that we would have some trouble and sure enough about an hour from home and an hour from my parents place, we had a blow out that destroyed a tyre on the hired trailer and damaged the wheel arch very badly.

So what does one do on Sunday of a long weekend with a blown tyre and trailer on the side of the highway with an old bath in it for dad’s aqauponics system 65km from home and 65km from the destination?

Well I decided that no one was driving with that trailer any time soon so I made it safe on the verge of the road and headed to my parents home wondering how I was going to sort this all out.

Should have known to relax. Within an of hour of getting to my parents place my father had sourced 2 tyres of different sizes, tools for the removal and tools for the repair for the trailer. All in a town of 400 people on Sunday afternoon of a long weekend…

I probably couldn’t do this in Melbourne a city of 3.5 million and certainly not that fast.

Small towns are like that the neighbour who supplied me with a spare tyre said don’t worry use it for as long as you need it no rush. And we did need it as in the end it was the tyre that fitted. This is not a wealthy man but actually a person on a disability pension. This is what community looks like it is helping out each other knowing that they will be helped if needed. I remember this from when I was a kid and my mother had a bad accident and casseroles just appeared from neighbours to help out das when mum was in hospital for some time.

Animals just got locked up, fed watered all sorted while dad was away with mum. And in return dad has probably helped these people or people who have helped these people. And so the circle goes around and so it does up to and including today.

We have kidded ourselves that we can purchase the services we need. Operating as islands and purchasing being free of the commitments and we can get anything we want, which we probably can at a cost to ourselves but it does not replace that helping hand that we need and it disempowers us. We used to rely on each other and it is not always the people that fit in our click or we fit in who are the ones who help us.

So dad and I collected the trailer replaced the wheel, bashed out the wheel arch (a little knowledge of metals and their craft is a handy thing) and got home to find the kids having a ball with their nana.

The neighbour advised me that I could have the tyre for $20 as he has enough of them. But he will get a couple of six packs of good beer to go with it as well. That level of helpfulness can’t be bought off so cheaply, and is not ever expected but doesn’t need to be as in the end the gift of the beer is just part to of that circle we discussed.

The day finished with a simple meal in the cool evening outside in my parents orchard. Homemade passatta with lots of beans and fresh veg and small amount of meat and lots of pasta. A couple of beers and great evening had by all.

When we checked out dads triffid like sunflowers in his garden I noticed bees hard at work in them and was reminded I needed to post a recipe that I was going to post last night till the homebrew got to me.

So below is a very tasty and refreshing little cordial that takes a few minutes to make and works really well in the hot humid conditions we have at the moment.

Brew a batch and sit in the garden with family and friends and just enjoy life and remember that you are not an island and can’t be if you really want to be part of society.

Orange, Honey and Lemon Cordial

3 cups of freshly squeezed orange juice (or frozen home squeezed juice works as well)
2 cups of freshly squeezed lemon juice(or frozen home squeezed juice works as well)
2 cups of water
1 cup of sugar
1 cup of honey

Combine it all a stainless steel pot stirring in the honey so it dissolves properly

Bring to a gentle boil then drop the heat and simmer for 5 minutes stirring to make sure the sugar and honey are combined and not sticking to the pot.

Pour into sterilised bottles. Should keep in the bottles for up to a month but better stored in a fridge and if you open the bottles definitely put in a fridge. There is not the usual amount of sugar that preserves most cordial for long periods of time. You could also add some tartaric acid to help with preserving it but in our house hold this does not last long enough for that to be an issue 🙂

Serve with ice and mixed to your preferred strength.

A Sunday

Posted on March 3, 2013 by anthonypickering

Our Sundays can be a but a hectic but they have fallen into a bit of a routine.

As our youngest decides that 5:30am is a good time to wake up and demand some food typically one of us is up even on the weekends at that time.

Chickens and ducks get fed, any plants needing it watered (depending on rain), cats fed and then a homemade breakfast.

I then head off to the community garden or my garden and do some work, Catch up together for swimming classes a few hours later, home for lunch, a nap for one of us while the other heads out with the older child to get anything that we need for the week ahead(I also do a fair bit of urban foraging for pallets at the is time in the industrial area’s near home)

Back home for stuff around the house (today was getting the ropes off the shade sail and replacing it with real hardware). Kids bathed, dinners cooked maybe one of neighbors over for dinner (we do this a lot), clothes ironed for the corporate week, house cleaned up as much as we can before we collapse in exhaustion.

Sounds normal and probably is. I will draw yourself to a few details. Homemade breakfast and lunches. Today we had sourdough hot cross buns and coffee for breakfast, and great lunch post kids swimming lessons of artisan bacon, home free range eggs, sourdough, tomatoes and mushrooms with a good red rind soft cheese and baked beans. Again with coffee.

So all of this set us back maybe $20 at the max for both meals. In the day A. and I would go to a café and the meal for one of use would be this much on one meal. We see a lot of the people in our swim class head to café at the swimming center and they probably spend twice that for a meal for them. And that is fine. We just choose to save our money and know where our food comes from.

The garden and the community garden help to keep us sane and in good fruit and veg. It is easier to just buy it but not better.

The shade sail cost us probably $1000 in total (probably a bit less) and we had neighbors who put in a similar one by a professional company that set them back $15,000. Now there’s took two weeks to get put in, mine took about a year to get ready. It does the same great job and keeps the back of the house 5 to 10 degrees cooler on a really hot day. Kids sleep better we sleep better. Again skills in house, be it cooking, concreting or managing the tension on the sail it is all skills to have and use.

Our evening meals on Sunday are typically a roast, stew or curry. And we would more than 50% of our time have a neighbor around for the meal. We enjoy their company they bring some booze we chat we eat it is all good. One thing we always try to do over the weekend is to get some extra meals ready and that also means a big curry or stew so we have enough for lunches. A meal at work canteen will set you back a minimum of $10 for a meal that is $50 per week $2500 per year… Yes I would prefer that in the bank or off my mortgage thank you very much.

Tonight I managed to get 10 meals together for the week (1 meal a day, 2 people, 5 days) and juice 4 cups of lemons (got a big bag from my parents) while chatting to my neighbor and cooking a meal. We are set and I can still be social even while doing things (hey I can drink beer and cook curry)

Even the setback of finding my work pants in need of repair was handled by A. who just pulled out the sewing machine and just repaired them. Again a set of skills used.

The reason for this long winded post is to show that while busy, we spend a lot of our time with each other and the kids, we get a nap often and save some money. I think this is how is should be. Yes we are buggered some times. Yes some days we order pizza and I end with a meal of two minute noodles and a can of tuna for lunch on Mondays but all in all we like this. We like the extra money in the bank it keeps us sane in this crazy world and our kids like to watch us do stuff not just stare at the TV screen. It allows us to control our consumerism and keep it under control. The skills are critical. I keep harping on about this the more skills you can build the better off you will be.

Learn absorbe, do!

Well this Sunday has come to an end and my last task before collapsing is to get this post out. Have a great week of work and remember if you a wishing it was Friday you are wishing away 5 days of your life.

But it doesn’t look the same as the bought one…

Posted on January 19, 2013 by anthonypickering

Today I went looking for a meal to make. We will be getting the back area shelled in March and I need to clean out the freezer in preparation for this and my pig in the box experiment for next winter. I still had a frozen rooster I had killed dressed a while ago when my father had given me a few more than planned.

hile I cooked up a Spanish stew of chicken and chorizo (recipe below) and number one son watched me cook as mum and sis where at a party the look of the home butchered chicken caught my eye. Here was no plump rounded chicken of perfect proportions skin snow white and ready to roast. No here was lean rangy bird frozen out of perfect proportions but I knew that this less perfect frozen thing would have a taste that the perfect chicken could never surpass.

It reminded me of an article I had read on the waste of food in the world being as high as 50%. One of the items that caught my eye as a ‘reason’ for the waste was that the food was not perfect or umblemished. What is this word perfect? In a world where we waste 50% of our food on stuff like not perfect I think we need to take a nice big reality check here people. Sadly even those who have claimed to have grasped the idea have looked at the less than perfect food the carrots not quite the right shape the marked fruit on the trees even the tomato not quite round and perfect and red or even this chicken and turned up their nose. Everyone wants to be good but be able to have their old ways and requirements at the same time. Doesn’t work that way I am afraid people.

But you can’t blame them. You see the celebrity chefs turning out perfect food with perfect ingredients that are same as those you can buy in the supermarket but are better, more organic more local more of everything but they look the same…

If we are going to be living more local then we are going to be eating a lot less perfect food but it will be a lot better for us and damn side better for the earth and the plants and beasts on it.

And the result is below. Tastes fantastic. Still not perfect to most people after all where else are you going to get the neck served up as part of your meal and boy if you have not eaten the neck cooked like this you have missed out.

Chicken and Chorizo Casserole

One chicken cut up or the equivalent in pieces
5 chorizo sliced into pennies
4-5 finely diced onions
5-10 garlic gloves sliced thinly
4-5 carrots diced
4-5 bay leaves
2 table spoons of good smoky paprika
Salt and pepper to taste
Chilli to taste
Can of tomato
2 cups of white wine
2 table spoons of plain flour in a cup of cold water.
Handfull of olives

Fry off chicken pieces in sunflower oil, put aside. Fry off the onions, add the diced carrots bay leaves, garlic and paprika fry until the onion just start to cover. Remove from the pot. Fry off the chorizo and when nicely browned add back in the chicken and onion mix. Add the other ingredients with the exception of the flour mix. Simmer for an hour or so then add the flour mix and simmer for another 10 minutes or so until the flour is cooked off and the sauce thickened. Serve with rice and few olives on top.