Musing on a Saturday Night Pizza

Earlier this week, I was asked a question that made me think about measurements and cup sizes, not the obvious clothes sizes!  But why Americans use cups and the UK uses metric?  And I remembered when the great-grandmother of a colleague died.  We both worked at the home office of Butler Shoes, that was a long time ago!  Anyway, she was thrilled to inherit her great grandmother's baking cups.  Now these were not what you buy in a store with lines and numbers on them.  One of them was a type of mug and one was a smaller tea cup.  And the recipes that came with the cups said things like one large cup of this and a small cup of that.

So my private opinion about how Americans began using cups is that we had to!  Once the ships or covered wagons arrived at their destination - what else would they use to bake, but a consistent way to measure using whatever they had?  I think it makes perfect sense.  However, at this same time in history, I doubt the average resident of Great Britain owned a scale....so what did they use?

Anyway, I decided to retry a recipe I found on another blog called  The Yummy Life.  It is for slow cooker carmelized onions and they were a disaster the first time. But the reviews were so positive and the pictures made the recipe seem so easy....I had to rethink this and retry it.  My theory is my slow cooker is bigger than what she uses and the recipe calls for large onions.  Possibly Scottish onions are not as big as what she has access to... so I tweaked it and tried it again and it was delicious. And as easy as her blog makes it sound. 

Still on the frugal challenge, we decided to make our own pizzas tonight.  I found a recipe for an easy pizza dough and used things we already had, including extra bacon cooked at lunch today.  Great way to clear out the fridge since we will be away for a few days.

Quick and Easy Pizza Dough (taken from allrecipes.co.uk)

375g (13 oz or 2 cups) plain flour
1 tsp salt
1 Tbs caster sugar (white sugar)
7g (1/4 oz) dried active baking yeast (I used a packet of yeast)
2 Tbs olive oil
225ml ( (8 fl oz or 1 cup) warm water

Prep:10 minutes       Cook:  25 minutes

1.  combine flour, salt, sugar and yeast in a large bowl.  Mix in oil and warm water.  Spread out on large pizza pan.  Top as desired.

2.  Bake at 190C / Gas mark 5 / 375F for 20 - 25 minutes.

This recipe said it served 15 people, but it never said what size pan to use! So I used a new one I got at Lidl, one that extends.  Then once I got the dough all stretched out, I had the foresight to check if it fit in the oven before putting the toppings on it.  Whew!  I had to push the extension in 3 inches!  Not much advantage in having a pan that can go so big, when I really can't use it.

Back to serving 15 people.....really?  Not in my house!

“Everyone is kneaded out of the same dough but not baked in the same oven”

Yiddish Proverb quotes

Peach Ham Sauce

Autumn comes to our street

Alan and I have been eating very conservatively while Mom is in the hospital, sort of an experiment as to how inexpensively and carefully we can get by on our food budget.

So last night, we cooked a "small" ham, 2.65 kilos  (5.8 lbs).  We almost never even see decent size hams on sale, and this really wasn't a "decent" size ham.  What I mean by that is, it would not feed the numbers I have been known to feed in the past - pre-empty nest.

This recipe was given to me by a friend who had this sauce at dinner along with a ham, of course!    In my little recipe collection - I have the date as November 1999!  This is also the cause of the subject of my previous blog - Identifying a Pattern

To give an idea of just how delicious this sauce is - my Mother in Law is diabetic and has to be extremely careful of her diet. She very rarely "cheats" because her blood sugar goes haywire.  But she makes an exception for this sauce, and will even ask me to make it for her if they cook a ham!

 

Peach Ham Sauce

4 oz (100gr) soft brown sugar

1 tsp each - cinnamon, allspice and ground cloves

1/2 cup (1/4 pint) water or peach juice

2 Tbs cider vinegar
1 can peaches in juice
 

Keep peaches to the side and mix all other ingredients.

Bring to a boil, add peaches and enjoy.

 

Does it get any easier that that?

 

Sorry that there is no picture of the finished sauce, with the peaches all speckled in spices.  I was in too much of a hurry to eat! 

 

 “Training is everything. The peach was once a bitter almond; cauliflower is nothing but cabbage with a college education.” Mark Twain.



Black Beans and Rice

I wonder if all my recipes and cookbooks have their own stories?  It has been such a pleasure unpacking and getting reacquainted with my cookbooks. There has even been some heartbreak along the way.  Especially with my Diet for a Small Planet....I purchased this when I graduated from FSU in the mid 1970's and learned a whole new way of eating.  As a result, I was a total vegetarian and health food fanatic until I moved to Atlanta and realized I had to relearn how to eat like a "normal" person again.  Not that vegetarianism is not normal, but in the late 70's, it was unusual and not easy for a single girl to be taken on a dinner date when she did not eat meat, sugar, any processed foods, drink coffee or alcohol or even eat chocolate.  I was really a fanatic. The tragic truth is - I never felt better than I did then. But outside of a university town environment, it was too difficult to continue.

I packed away a whole bunch of cookbooks and put them in a box in the garage. And which one got chewed by a mouse?  Only the Diet for a Small Planet.  And really chewed too.  I was so unhappy, I immediately ordered a new one, but this won't have my scribbled notes as I got to grips with protein complementary cooking.  And the older one might even have been valuable, I don't think it was a first edition, but I did buy it in 1976.  Antique anyway!

But that is not the cook book I decided to use last night, this is one I bought in Las Vegas at the Girl Scout headquarters.  I am very involved in Girl Guides in Scotland and always try to visit local Girl Scout or Girl Guide headquarters or shops where ever we might travel.  In Las Vegas, I got two cookbooks and this one was mainly to cook ahead and freeze things, called Fix Freeze Take & Bake.   One recipe that looked fun to try was Black Beans and Rice.  Sounded wonderful, and it also turned out to be very simple. The most difficult thing about this recipe is cooking the rice, honest!

Finding black beans in this area has not always been easy and I have had to ask Mom to bring them when she used to fly over here.  But I found canned black beans in Morrison's and was ecstatic!  Another strange thing is - in the UK you won't find "sour" cream, but you will find "soured" cream.  Why the difference?  I guess we will never know, but they are exactly the same thing!

Last night was one of the rare nights when I was on my own, Mom is still in the hospital and Alan had gone out with friends. I am afraid readers will get the wrong impression but Alan really does not go out often and he is retired, so he is around quite alot.  Being an only child, I do treasure my "me time" so am almost always happy to see him go, also happy to see him come back!  Being alone and with not enough time to possibly consider house work, this was a chance to try something new, but the only rice I had was Arborio rice.  Oh who cares, rice is rice, or so I hoped - and this turned out to be a safe call.  (however, the rice did not make it into the ingredients picture!)

Black Beans & Rice - as written in the cookbook, sizes of cans will be different in the UK...

1 (15 oz.) can black beans, drained
1 (10 oz.) can tomatoes and green chillies, drained  (Had to use different tomatoes here, this is not available where I shop)
1 Cup Salsa ( I used the whole jar)  I also used mild and next time would go a bit hotter!
2 Cups cooked rice  (again, I had to guess, do they mean before or after cooking?  so hard to measure)
1 Cup sour cream
2 Cups Shredded Cheddar Cheese, divided

In the time it took me to shred the cheese, the rice cooked.

In a medium bowl, combine drained black beans, drained tomatoes, salsa, cooked rice, sour cream and 1 cup Cheddar cheese. Mix well. Transfer to a greased 2 quart casserole dish to freeze and top with remaining Cheddar cheese. Cover and freeze. 

(this never happened with me, I cooked it and ate it.  Will try freezing next time, it was delicious!)

To prepare:

Thaw in refrigerator or microwave.  Preheat oven to 350F or 160C. Cover and bake for 30 minutes.  Remove cover and bake an additional 10 - 15 minutes. 

Can freeze up to 6 months.

Bailey was patiently waiting for my dinner to be ready!

Fresh out of the oven.

                                                                                           Dinner is ready!

 

One thing I would change is to make this a bit more spicy.  I have never seen tomatoes with chillies here and I think they would really have made a difference. Plus I usually buy the mild salsa because I have an intolerance to cumin and it is difficult to find salsa without cumin.  But I will make an effort next time to find a hotter salsa or add more spices to give this a bit more zing!  It was good without that but I think it would be amazing with it!

 

 

Just the recipe!

 

 

Black Beans & Rice - as written in the cookbook, sizes of cans will be different in the UK...

1 (15 oz.) can black beans, drained
1 (10 oz.) can tomatoes and green chillies, drained
1 Cup Salsa
2 Cups cooked rice 
1 Cup sour cream
2 Cups Shredded Cheddar Cheese, divided

 

In a medium bowl, combine drained black beans, drained tomatoes, salsa, cooked rice, sour cream and 1 cup Cheddar cheese. Mix well. Transfer to a greased 2 quart casserole dish to freeze and top with remaining Cheddar cheese. Cover and freeze. 

To prepare:

Thaw in refrigerator or microwave. Preheat oven to 350F or 160C. Cover and bake for 30 minutes. Remove cover and bake an additional 10 - 15 minutes.

Can freeze up to 6 months.

 

 

"Vegetarian - that's an old Indian word meaning "lousy hunter." ~Andy Rooney

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

Gingerbread - or a lesson in patience

It has been awhile since I posted - life is very, very busy with working and visiting Mom in the hospital. Last Thursday, she did make tremendous progress though, by being transferred to the rehab hospital.  This is fantastic news, but also puts more pressure on us, as we had postponed getting her room ready and focused on other priorities.  The whole house has become a priority and it is not a good place to be at the moment.

Last week, my daughter moved from a flat to a darling little house right on the edge of a racecourse and you can see the Isle of Arran from her yard.  How wonderful.  I took the day off work and Alan and I helped her begin to leave her old flat and move in.  This consisted of her unpacking the kitchen and Alan dismantling and rebuilding furniture.  Which left me going up and down the stairs all day long.  Good for my weightwatchers regime but I had to keep reminding myself that this was not unfair, we all had jobs to do!

Consequently, Alan and I were tired and accepted the fact that we had to get take away Chinese food for dinner, poor us!  Sat down for one hour and then traipsed off to the rehab hospital to see Mom, who continues to be fantastic and is getting better everyday. 

 

Alan got the opportunity to go out for drinks with the boys, I was delighted to be on my own and just entertain myself for a few hours.  Instead of sitting around and resting, I got inspired to find a recipe and bake myself a treat.  So I located a recipe I had not done in years, and I used to do this one all the time.  One of my previous employers used to have a newsletter and this recipe was published once and I had used it so many times.  I am not sure when it became "lost" but it is found again. However, in my haste, I discovered problems with this recipe and it was too late to correct it.  But you will see for yourselves.

 

 When I was a sorority girl, many years ago, my big sister gave me a recipe book - the kind with blank pages and dividers so I could put in my own favorite recipes.  In my normal way - I saved this special book for many years, maybe even 20, why?  I should have started using it a long time earlier, but glad I did use it otherwise some special recipes would have been lost, like this Gingerbread.  One strange thing I had not noticed until doing this last night, the measurements are all in cups and teaspoons - just like an American recipe.  I did try to convert it to Imperial, but got stuck with the 2 cups of flour.  I tried weighing the flour, but it weighed in at 370g, and, when looking at the measuring cups, it looks like it should be 500 or 600g. Sorry, I don't know how to do this any other way than using the cups.

Gingerbread -                                                                                

2 cups flour (plain flour)          all metric measurements are sheer guesswork!

1 egg

3/4 cup sugar, I used demerara  (added October 22 after researching other recipes!)

3/4 cup treacle (molasses)  could have possibly used less, will experiment again

1 heaped teaspoon cinnamon

1 heaped teaspoon mixed spice

1 heaped teaspoon ginger

1 heaped teaspoon baking soda (bicarbonate of soda)

4 ounces margarine  (115g)

1 cup water   (250ml)

1 cup dried fruit (170g)    (I only had raisins and cranberries - in the picture.

                    Then discovered raisins were out of date!)

 

all present and accounted for (minus the raisins)

 

 

 Here is the first lesson in patience - read the whole recipe before starting, I did not do this and ended up ruining the whole batch of bread!  You have to plan time to cool the mixture after number 3. I failed to do this!  I did notice I had a scrambled egg on top and that was my wake up call.

 

1.  Place all ingredients, except for flour and egg, in a pan and boil.  Another note, put it in a rather large pan because it really boils! 

2.  Boil for 4 minutes and allow to cool

3.  Add flour and egg and mix well.

4.  Place in a loaf tin, prepared as you would for any bread baking, and bake for 1 hour & 15 minutes

     at 325 F, 170 C or gas mark 3 - 4.

 

this version tasted fine, but not exactly as I remembered and it did not boil like I remembered, so I looked up other Gingerbread recipes.  Lo and behold, it looks like when I copied this recipe into my little book I must have forgotten the sugar! And that must be why I stopped doing this!  So now my mission is to try it again using some sugar or similar ingredient. That is the next lesson in patience, we will all have to wait until I have time to try this again.  Sorry!

 

October 22 changes made due to experimenting with combining other recipes.  I added 3/4 sugar and 3/4 treacle AND let the mixture cool totally before adding flour and egg.  The result was delicious!  I felt like Paul Hollywood from the Great British Bake Off saying "there is such a crunch to the crust"!  And I made the mistake of taking some to work and have had to force myself to stop eating it. 

Although, I might cut down on treacle next time......Patience remains a virtue!

 

 

 

Not sure what I will try, some recipes call for sugar and others call for treacle, It was not until I double checked that I was sure treacle and molasses are interchangeable.  So here is the treacle I got the other day to get ready to try this again - I just could not resist!

 

 

 

And here is the recipe without all the pictures.  If any of you come up with an acceptable amount of sugar or whatever, please share with me!

 

 

 

Gingerbread

2 cups flour (plain flour) all metric measurements are sheer guesswork!

1 egg

1 heaped teaspoon cinnamon

1 heaped teaspoon mixed spice

1 heaped teaspoon ginger

1 heaped teaspoon baking soda (bicarbonate of soda)

4 ounces margarine (115g)

1 cup water (250ml)

1 cup dried fruit (170g)   

 

Allow time for mixture to cool before adding flour and egg in number 3.

 

1. Place all ingredients, except for flour and egg, in a pan and boil. Another note, put it in a rather large pan because it really boils!

2. Boil for 4 minutes and allow to cool

3. Add flour and egg and mix well.

4. Place in a loaf tin, prepared as you would for any bread baking, and bake for 1 hour & 15 minutes

at 325 F, 170 C or gas mark 3 - 4.

 

 

"And I had but one penny in the world. Thou should’st have it to buy gingerbread." – William Shakespeare, Love’s Labours Lost

Butternut Squash & Sage Risotto

In clearing out all my cookbooks and recipes, I stumbled across one using sage!  I don't often cook with sage, but I literally own a whole bunch of it.  Last year I bought a tiny sage plant and it has thrived, add that to the fact that I had all the ingredients and it seemed a good idea to have risotto for dinner.

OK, maybe I didn't have all the listed ingredients, but I had enough to substitute and make a delicious dinner!  In fact, I was listening to Jamie Oliver on a radio interview the other day - he was talking about his new cookbook, Jamie's 15 Minute Meals, which sounds like a book every household needs.  One thing he said though, sounded like he was talking about me.  When asked if everyone could benefit from using his new cookbook, Jamie said that first time, or inexperienced cooks would probably do better since they will follow the recipe exactly, where more experienced cooks will change and rejig a recipe.  Uh oh, he was talking about me!

Here is a glimpse of how I change and rejig a recipe:

Hand picked herbs, mainly sage, but also thyme and oregano.  My problem with cooking is I tend to throw things in and not measure them - so nothing can be repeated exactly. So you would think documenting my cooking would stop this practice.  But it doesn't, because I never added these herbs into this recipe.  I cut them up and put them on the butternut squash before putting that in the oven.  It wasn't until I saw this picture I remembered!

This recipe calls for the squash to be

cut into 2cm dice (I guess that would be about one inch).  But I don't do this because I absolutely hate cutting butternut squash!  It is too hard and takes the fun out of cooking.  So I always just bake the squash before using. It will change the texture of the finished product, but it always tastes good.  Just drizzle a bit of olive oil over the cut sides, throw some herbs on and bake at about 150 C  (300 F).  I tend to wait for about an hour, or as close to an hour as possible.  The squash will be mushy though, so it might be better to try it and see what texture works for you.                                                                                                      Before baking

After letting the squash cool, I just take a spoon and scoop it out.  Like I said, it will be mushy and this tended to disappear into the rice, making the risotto a bit orange, but I thought it was good!  This squash was double the size of what I needed so I used half for the risotto and half for soup.

                                                                                                       After baking

Assembling the ingredients

A traditional ingredient in risotto is wine, but I didn't have any white wine and felt that this did not have to hold me back!  I found white wine substitutes on the internet (what would we do without that?).  Turns out you can use a number of things instead of wine:

• apple juice
• chicken broth
• apple cider
• white grape juice
• ginger ale
• water

I used apple juice. 



Butternut Squash & Sage Risotto

Serves 4

400g butternut squash cut into 2cm dice     (just under a pound of squash cut into 1 inch dice)

2 tbsp olive oil

100g tenderstem broccoli                            (3 1/2 ounces)  ( I used peas since I didn't have broccoli)

       Half these lengthwise

1 onion, finely chopped

2 garlic cloves, crushed

2 tbsp sage leaves, chopped (about 12 leaves)

1/2 tsp dried chili flakes

300g Arborio rice                                      ( 1 1/4 cups)

125 ml white wine                                     ( 1/3 cup)

1 litre hot vegetable stock                          ( 4 cups)

60 g soft cheese                                          ( 1/2 cup)   I used Philadelphia extra light cream cheese

This is they way the original recipe is worded:

1.  Preheat oven to 200C, fan 180C, gas 6 or 400F.  Tip the squash into a roasting tin. Add 1tbsp oil and mix well.  Cook in the oven for 10 minutes, then add the broccoli and cook for a further 20 minutes. 

Or my way:

1.  Cut squash in half, drizzle with 1 tbsp oil and chopped herbs (I used sage, thyme and oregano).  Place in a roasting tin and bake at about 150C or 300F.  I did mine for an hour and that was possibly too long.

2.  While the squash is baking, heat the remaining 1tbsp in a large frying pan and cook the onion for 5 minutes, until soft but not colored.  Add the garlic, sage and chili flakes. Cook for a further 1 minute then stir in the rice.

3.  Pour over the wine or wine substitute and simmer until it is absorbed.  Gradually add the vegetable stock, a ladleful at a time, stirring until it is all absorbed and the rice is tender.  This should take about 25 minutes.and the roasted vegetables, I scooped out the cooked squash and added a handful of frozen peas since the peas needed to cook.  If you follow use the roasted squash and broccoli, you would add this with the cream cheese.

This was the last "ladleful" which was bigger than normal because I got a bit impatient.  However, it did cook down and ended up alright!

 



4.  Season with freshly ground black pepper. Stir through the cream cheese and enjoy!

 

Nutritional information:

 

This meal contains 2 of your 5 a day.

Vegetarian

 

Weightwatchers Propoints  approximately 10pp per serving

 

 

 

 

 

When baking, follow directions. When cooking, go by your own taste. ~Laiko Bahrs



Identifying a Pattern

Yesterday was the last day of my being off work due to stress of Mom's illness.  As a result, I felt even more pressure to accomplish something/anything. And I feel that I failed completely.  Ok, maybe I did something constructive:  I alphabetized my spices!  This took much longer than I expected.  And I did realize I am quite a lazy menu planner.  Not with everyday cooking, but with holiday meals.  And this was made so obvious by the 3 jars of Allspice I owned.  Their sell by dates were - November 11, 2009, December 8, 2010 and October 12, 2011.....From that pattern, it looks like I would be on target to purchase yet another jar pretty soon!  And I know exactly why!

Every New Year's Day I cook a large ham for a family dinner.  Living in Scotland, we really do not have access to large hams on a regular basis, at least not any I can find.  You only see these at grocery stores for Easter and the Christmas holiday season.  The traditional meal for New Year's Day in Scotland is Steak Pie, so I really don't get why hams also come out at this time.  But I am not going to argue, I just enjoy them when they are around.  Someone I knew made the most delicious spiced sauce to go with ham and this is the reason I own so many jars of Allspice and Ground Cloves.  (this is another recipe I will share, once I locate it!) 

October 25, 2012  Here is the link to the recipe:  Peach Ham Sauce

Holiday cooking is pressure packed and, now that I am aware, I must list all the ingredients I need for this meal and fail to take account of what I already own.  So every year I take a few teaspoons out of new jars and then they are neglected and forgotten the rest of the year.

Sadly, I think I run my whole life on full speed ahead and that is why we have so much unnecessary stuff in this house.  So I truly believe that after completion of this kitchen project, the rest of the house is going to be "under attack"!

“Once you get a spice in your home, you have it forever. Women never throw out spices. The Egyptians were buried with their spices. I know which one I'm taking with me when I go.”

Erma Bombeck quotes (U.S. humorist, 1927-1996)

Doors Open Day

We took a well deserved break from the kitchen today and got to enjoy one of my favorite days of the year - Doors Open Day!  It is one day, or weekend, a year where many places not normally open to the public open their doors.  Unfortunately, there were 2 other really fun sounding events in the area this weekend.  When it rains, it pours! 

There was an Army day at Culzean, I can't find the link to it or what it was really called.  But some photos I have seen of the event had exhibitions of soldiers in a variety of uniforms and historical settings.  We thought this would be fun to take Corbyn to.  Here is the link to Culzean Castle itself.  It is always a fun place to visit, even when nothing is going on there!  Culzean Castle

Then there was also the Live @ Troon weekend.  This might have sounded too grown up for Corbyn, but a friend of our's is involved in the planning of it and informed us of the kiddie activities they were going to do.  So another choice.....

How does this happen?   Of all the weekends when there is nothing to do, and here are 3 really fun events, both for adults and kiddies, all at once?  Multiply this by the very limited time we see Corbyn on a Sunday and divide by the time I spend at the hospital visiting Mom and it is easy to understand the dilemma we were presented with.

So, halfway to Culzean, I made Alan turn around and go back to Doors Open Day.  He was not impressed and neither was Corbyn for awhile. But once we got to Belleisle and saw the tents with the big owls, and stand of used toys for sale, a bouncy castle and the wonderful Victorian conservatory that this whole event was about, I hope all was forgiven. 

When I first moved to this area, Belleisle was a fantastic venue for weddings, going out to dinner, just hanging out at the pub, visiting animals, walking along the walled garden and into the conservatory.  Through the years, all of this has ceased to exist as the local council allowed the place to fall into ruin.  But things are looking up for the building itself:  http://www.ayrshirepost.net/ayrshire-news/local-news-ayrshire/ayr-news/2012/04/13/ayr-s-historic-belleisle-hotel-to-be-given-5-million-makeover-102545-30737229/

And another group has taken over the renovation and restoration of the conservatory....http://www.ayrshirepost.net/ayrshire-news/local-news-ayrshire/ayr-news/2010/07/09/belleisle-conservatory-set-for-makeover-102545-26798903/

The conservatory had trees growing out of it and all the glass broken the last time I saw it, so we did not know what to expect.  Here is what the outside looks like now-

I didn't have the chance to take any inside pictures because Corbyn did not like being in here.

 Corbyn did like the inside of the bouncy castle though!

We also visited Holy Trinity Church, where some of the people there gave Corbyn Doors Open Day balloons!

Our last stop was the University of West Scotland. This is the university our son attended, but he missed the new building!  We had to wait longer than expected before the tour started, so we sat in this cafe and tried to keep Corbyn from taking all the cabinets apart.  This picture is Corbyn looking for rainbows through the sky lights!  He said there weren't any, but at least he sat still for a while!  It was a really sunny day - what grandparents will do for even a minute's peace!

We only had Corbyn from 11 to 2:30 when he had to be picked up by his Dad.  I think we managed to squeeze in a whole day in those few hours.

 

 

"Do you know why children are so full of energy? Because they suck it out of their grandparents"

Author: Gene Perret