Delicious Dulce de Leche

 Faithful Esse warms our home all winter long. She is insatiably hungry and needs to be fed daily. She is wonderfully versatile and if we employ her to her full potential, she is perfect for preparing dishes that require long simmering or slow roasting.

Surplus milk plus warm hearted Esse were the catalysts that sparked the idea for a new Rosewood Country Kitchen product... Dulce de Leche.

The recipe is simple: Litres and litres of creamy jersey milk, heaps of sugar, vanilla pods, a couple of pinches of this and that ... and hours and hours of bubbling and stirring until we have our first batch of jars filled with dreamy caramelised milk.

Perfect for topping cakes, filling swiss rolls, topping cupcakes, topping desserts and ice-cream and, best of all, decadently eating off a teaspoon.

On My Mind Today...

This week I had fun taking something ordinary and forgotten and turning it into something extraordinary.

Ta Daaaaaa!

The results of my Pantry Purge Party (see my last post) were good enough to serve at a dinner party.

Delicious cardamon scented honey mousse.

Each drizzled with honey and topped with a pretty pansy. 

I will definitely be playing this game again. 

What's on your mind today. Join Rhonda at Down to Earth to be a part of this Friday post.

Pantry Purge Party

Who's up for a fun challenge?

Go to your pantry. Find the item in it that you haven't used in the longest time. Something that has been lying forgotten in a back corner. Something that you seldom use. Why did you buy it?

Did you think I was going to tell you to throw it away. No way, that's not Elastic Mom style.

Now, here's the fun part:

We are going to USE IT AND NOT LOSE IT.

See how you can use it in the next few days by combining it with ingredients that you already have in your home. No shopping allowed for this challenge.

After you have used it, leave a comment below,  letting us know what it was and what you made with it.

My most ancient pantry item is gelatine. It has moved house with me a number of times. I bought it for some forgotten reason. After paging through my recipe scrap books, I couldn't decide between ginger mousse or honey and cardamon mousse. So my beekeeping husband decided for me - the honey one. Tonight I first need to make some yoghurt from the abundant milk that we have, and then I will make the mousse tomorrow, a special treat for my family.

Brilliant Bread Recipe

 Every now and then I plan to post a BACK TO BASICS recipe. These standby recipes give stretch to my Elastic Mom lifestyle.

I live too far from the shops to buy fresh bread regularly and so on most days I bake a hot, steaming loaf of bread for lunch. Lately, due to frosty weather, our daily bread has frequently been seen gracing the table alongside fragrant bowls of soup. My current favourite bread recipe is so easy and quick to make, and best of all, it is versatile. I vary the ingredients daily, just ensuring that I follow the basic pattern of ingredients. Baking this bread uses up all the odd jugs and jars of dairy products that are lurking in the fridge. I make my own butter and yoghurt, so often have buttermilk and whey, but you can use any milky thing really.


So, here it is:

BRILLIANT BREAD
Turn your oven on to 180 degrees celsius (350 deg. F) - your dough will be ready to pop in the oven before the bread heats up.
Grease a loaf tin. I keep a little oil and a pastry brush in a mug the fridge for quick tin-oiling.
Grab two bowls - one for the wet stuff and one for the dry stuff.

In the dry bowl, stir together :
31/2 cups flour - any combinations of flours will work. (Today it was white bread flour, yesterday it was half white flour and half freshly ground wheat. Just use whatever you have)
1 t salt
1 t bicarbonate of soda (or if using self raising flour, leave this out)
Now add your special ingredient of the day (see below)

In the WET bowl, whisk together:
2 cups yoghurt, or a bit of yoghurt and the rest milk, or buttermilk, or whey, or sour milk, or milk with a bit of lemon juice added to make it sour. (It needs to be sour to react with the bicarb ... to make bubbles ... to make your bread rise.)
2  dollops of honey, or sugar, or syrup. We keep bees, so I dollop the honey from two table spoons.

Pour the wet stuff into the dry stuff. Stir quickly, and spread evenly into the greased loaf tin.
Bake for roughly an hour.

That's it!

Easy-peasy-puttsticks!

Oh yes, if you forget to make it in time for an hour of baking before lunch, (as I did this week) just spoon the dough into a muffin pan and your muffin shaped bread rolls will bake in half the time.

OK, now for those SPECIAL INGREDIENTS. This is what makes your bread brilliant, and keeps your family enjoying the same bread every day. I vary this part according to whatever I have plenty of in the house, or whatever needs using up, or whatever I am in the mood for.

Today I chose to add a handful each of wheat bran and raisins.

Here are some other ideas:
- grated cheese and mixed herbs
- assorted seeds.... sunflower, sesame, poppy, linseed etc.
- grated apple and chopped walnuts
- half a teaspoon of ground cumin or coriander
- crushed garlic and some rosemary
- olives
-sun-dried tomatoes and fresh herbs



Use your imagination and have fun.

Recipe for Elastic Scatter Cushions

-

Start with one Elastic Mom
Add in one free Saturday afternoon and one recently dusted sewing machine.

Take one old, out of shape pink pyjama top that was in the scrap pile (mine)
Add some crocheted granny stripes that have been gathering dust for a year (my daughter's)
Cut the pink top and sew it to cover an old, ugly scatter cushion.
Cover the now-pink cushion with the cheerful stripes.

Then take some orange fabric that was intended for a school project and never used.
Add a serviette decoupage made in an art class four years ago. (my son's)
Sew the leafy print onto the orange  fabric and decorate it with yellow stitching.
Then sew it into another cushion cover.

Take a large square of moss stitch knitted five years ago...

using unraveled wool from an unfinished baby jersey (my son's) that was started 12 years ago ...

using leftover aran wool from a  jersey (my husband's) knitted 17 years ago, 

and sew it onto a piece of unbleached cotton bought 18 months ago.

Sew up a creamy cover for another scatter cushion.

Make button holes and use three cream-coloured buttons cut off an old tatty cushion to decorate the back.

Continue in this fashion until your weekend runs out.

Send the stripy cushion to your daughter's pink bedroom. Keep the blue and red cushions on the couch.
Arrange some of your Autumnal cushions on your bed along with the fluffy blanket knitted by your daughter for her daddy and the beaded cushion from your sister.

Smile.

On My Mind Today...

Sore-throat-soothing, lemon, ginger and honey rooibos tea made in an almost empty honey jar.

SHAKING JARS:
My mother taught me to save every last drop of whatever's in a jar, by shaking up the dregs in the jar with something a little more liquid.

So I ...

... make tea in almost empty honey jars
... shake up mayonnaise jars with milk to add to a salad dressing and sauces,
... shake up tomato sauce and chutney bottles with vinegar or water to add to soup or stew,
... shake up relish and chutney jars with salad dressing to add an extra zing to salads,
... shake up jam jars with water or milk to use in porridge, or baking,
... shake up Marmite jars with hot water for gravies and soups,
... shake up shampoo bottles with hot water and pour them in my hair,

Shaking jars adds extra flavour to my cooking and in true Elastic Mom style,
USES IT INSTEAD OF LOSING IT.

P.S. My son loves farm lollipops - teaspoons with the last bits of honey sticking to them.

Rhonda at Down to Earth inspired this Friday On My Mind post.

Crazy Quick Quiche

I have a stash of versatile BASIC recipes that are quick and easy, and most importantly, ADAPTABLE. This Crazy Quick Quiche is actually a savoury tart masquerading as a quiche.

Remember, as the Queen of Leftovers, I absolutely adore any recipe that uses up those little bits of meat or vegetables that are lurking in the fridge, or a recipe that successfully handles a glut of vegetables from the garden, and this is one of them. This is creative cooking at it's best. The art is in finding the tastiest combinations of ingredients. I go by the philosophy of FOOD FAMILIES. There are just some foods that are meant to be put together -





like chicken and broccoli ,
or how about butternut, feta and toasted sunflower seeds,
or straight sweetcorn and tuna,
or even bacon, mushrooms and tomato with italian herbs,
or pumpkin, walnuts and leeks,
or what about olives, tomato and pesto,
or bacon, peas and potato,
or try going mexican with cooked beans, green pepper, tomato, chili, cumin and oregano
or standard spinach and feta with a sprinkling of nutmeg...

... the combinations are as endless as your imagination.

Today I am using broccoli, sweetcorn and sliced jerusalem artichokes. I often only use vegetables in my quiche as there is already plenty of protein in the meal thanks to the eggs and cheese. This saves any leftover meat for another meal. Yep, Elastic Mom streeeeeeeeetching those resources again.

Another flavourful idea is to shake up some milk in an almost empty jar of chutney, mayonnaise or relish  and use it in this recipe. This uses up every last tasty drop from the jar, making washing up easier,  and adds zing to your quiche. Today I cleaned out a yummy jar of coriander chutney.

CRAZY QUICK QUICHE
Heat the oven  to 180"C or 350'F depending on where you live.
Take a casserole dish and grease it well.
Fry up an onion and put it in the bottom of your dish.
Cover the onion with your exciting combination of chopped vegetables - fresh or cooked.
broccoli /sweetcorn/ spinach / mushrooms, asparagus / butternut / potato / tomato ....etc.
Add in any bits of meat - bacon / chicken / tuna / nuts or whatever takes your fancy.
Sprinkle grated tasty cheese over the top.

In a separate bowl whisk together:

6 eggs
1/2 cup flour
2 t mustard - powder or paste
1/2 t salt
2 c milk (sour milk will also do, as will leftover yoghurt, buttermilk or cream.)
1/3 c oil
some herbs or spices to compliment your tasty combo.

Pour this mixture over your veggie combo.

Bake until set and golden. Serve hot or cold with some bread or potatoes on the side and a fresh salad or cooked vegetables depending on the weather.

I hope you enjoy giving this recipe a try. Keep a lookout for more of my BACK TO BASICS recipes over the next while.

Crying Over Spoiled Milk?

When the milk starts to smell a little on the sour side, do you pour it down the sink? Do you feed it to your dog? Well, in the spirit of Elastic Mom stretching precious resources, here are some excellent sour milk user-upper ideas:

Bake it into anything.... cakes, breads, puddings, muffins and whatever else you can think of. I most often substitute it for yoghurt in my basic bread recipe. Or how about some bread and butter pudding. Spread slices of bread with butter and jam and arrange them in a baking dish. Beat the milk with some eggs and sugar. Pour this over the bread and leave to soak for a good hour or so. Sprinkle with cinnamon and bake until puffed and golden. Yummy.

Instead of serving the baked or roast potatoes you had planned to make for dinner, mash them up with the sour milk, a bit of butter, crushed garlic and some seasoning.

Warm your family's tummies with a nourishing soup made with whatever meat and veggies you have, and of course that darned milk. How about making a basic white sauce with it and then adding fried onions, some stock, sweetcorn and tuna or chicken. Topped with cheese it makes for a delicious chowder.

Speaking of white sauce. Any slightly soured milk makes great cheese sauce for pasta dishes.

Serve oats porridge cooked up with half water, half milk ( the one you're getting rid of), some raisins, a cinnamon stick, grated apple, and nuts if you like. Served with honey on top your family will think you are spoiling them and not realize you're really swindling them.

As the cliché goes: Prevention is better than cure. USE IT BEFORE YOU LOSE IT.  If I have vast quantities of milk that is not being used up fast enough, then I try to make yoghurt with it before it goes sour. Otherwise, I plan a dessert that needs generous helpings of custard. And then there is always milk tart - a traditional South African Dessert - baked custard flavoured with cinnamon.

I could carry on until the cows come home. Speaking of cows. What do you do with your leftover milk?

Fun Fitness for Free

In a health conscious world of personal trainers, fitness centres and specialized sport, so many of us feel ill equipped and ignorant regarding our own exercise requirements. So we become dependent on the 'experts' to show us how to optimize our fitness. We book ourselves into expensive classes, or waste away the hours transporting our children back and forth to organized sporting activities. Dare I mention the vast sums of cash lying gathering dust in the form of accumulated, unused sports equipment, or flashing for favour out on the field.

What if the budget cannot stretch as far as fitness tuition?

What if instead of providing the stress release that we crave, the sports schedules drive us dilly as we drive our darlings to matches and classes?

What if being indoors in a sweaty gym with sweaty people just doesn't do it for you?

What if the majestic outdoors feeds your soul?

What if you can combine precious time with your little ones, or the love of your life, with time spent getting fit?

What if fitness can be found for free?

I concede that fitness can be a science, but face it, most of us are not top athletes in training. We just want a way to keep trim, healthy and strong. Here are a few of my favourite FREE FUN FITNESS ideas: 

My all time best is to head uphill, snack in a pack, loved ones around me. It could be a simple afternoon tea trip to the top of a local koppie (rocky outcrop in South Africa). How about a hard, butt-busting slog up the highest peak you can find? Mountain air exhilarates me. Nothing beats the view from the top, wherever that top may be.

The scents of mountain plants from childhood hikes are imprinted in my pleasant memory bank. If you want to build up strength in the process, then add a child to your shoulders, or a backpack to your back.

A brisk walk with a friend or loved one is a great way to get that heart pumping and those legs moving, whether it be through a forest, along a sandy shore, or even in the concrete jungle, if you have to.

Oh, and what about your furry best friend? Get that tail wagging with delight as you invest time in your precious pooch, and fix your physique at the same time.

A pair of running shoes is the only real expense for a faster form of fitness. Just take it slowly at first, or the physiotherapy bills will outweigh the benefits of the exercise. That was a hard lesson for me.

 Running at sunrise is my favourite way to greet the day. Now, as soon as my leg injury heals....a bit of too much too fast in my recent past. Running builds fitness quickly and fills your brain with happy hormones.

Remember those dust-covered bicycles in the shed? Make them work for a living. Find a nearby hill and get those legs pumping.

Feel the wind whooshing through your hair as you speed down the other side.

Scratch around in your home. If is is anything like ours, you will be sure to find bats and balls, roller-skates, skateboards or even a skipping rope. Instead of tossing them because they are gathering dust, grab a hubby or child and play with them. The best way to save money and get fit is to USE WHAT YOU HAVE. There is a sense of satisfaction that comes from making your equipment work for its worth. Playing with your family builds laughter, fitness and memories. This is true FREE FUN FITNESS.

My senses are thrilled when I exercise in the midst of outdoor beauty, under big skies. My spirit lifts when I deeply breathe in crisp morning air.

 Today we are joining a Fun Walk / Run. Yes, there is a modest entry fee. It is a fundraiser for an orphanage in Lesotho, well worth every cent. I am eagerly anticipating joining with happy friends and family as we all sweat for a cause.

How can you exercise for free today? 

How can you have fun with your family today?

The Dairy Dance

My children run over to collect a bucket of milk, and the Dairy Dance begins. The sequence of the steps depend on my mood, but the dance is choreographed to use every last drop of the milky goodness. My Elastic Mom philosophy of USE IT, DON'T LOSE IT is all about milking every lost drop from my resources. This time it is literally milking the milk. 

 We are blessed with buckets of creamy unpasteurized, unhomogenized jersey milk. When a fresh bucket arrives, I stand it in the fridge for a few hours to allow the cream to rise to the top. Them I skim off the CREAM to use for butter, whipped cream or ice-cream.

Butter is so easy to make, even without a churn. It took me a year of farm living to even give it a try. Now I wonder why i waited so long.

Here's how I make BUTTER:

1.  Beat the cream in a food processor until it forms tiny yellow globules floating in a whitish fluid, buttermilk.

2. Press the globules together with a wooden spoon, and pour off the buttermilk. A bit of ice in the bowl helps the butter to stay in a lump.

3. Work the butter on a wooden board with a wooden spoon. Press out every last drop of buttermilk which can make it go rancid. Rinse repeatedly under a running cold tap.

4. Add a pinch of salt. Then press into a dish and refrigerate your butter. 

As for the BUTTERMILK, I USE IT within a day. I doesn't keep well. It is delicious in baked goods, such as buttermilk rusks, flapjacks, bread and whatever you like. 

Then there is ice-cream. My generous husband gave me an ice-cream machine for my birthday. 

Here's how I make ICE-CREAM:

1. In the morning - Make an egg custard on the stovetop with milk and/or cream.

2. Stir the cooled custard into some fresh cream along with pureed fruit or your favourite flavouring.

3. Chill the mixture all day.

4. Pour the well chilled mixture into the ice-cream machine, and run it for around half an hour while you are eating dinner. Serve the soft ice-cream immediately and hope there is enough leftover to keep some in the freezer. 

If you don't have an ice-cream machine, then freeze the mixture, beating the crystals down every so often while it is solidifying.

Now that just about completes the the cream part of the dance. If it happens to go sour before I can use it, then it goes into my baking, or into a pasta sauce. I make sure not to LOSE IT.

Next it's the MILK. I use it in white sauce, porridge, puddings, smoothies, and in baking too. But the best of all is when my husband makes me a creamy cuppachino with that morning's milk. Hot and frothy foam, sprinkled with cocoa, floating on delicious espresso... mmmm

I make yoghurt with the milk too. It is also really so easy to make, and I wonder why I found the concept rather daunting. 

Here's how I make YOGHURT:
1. Heat the required amount of milk to just below boiling point.
2. Cool the milk to blood temperature. Test it on your wrist, like a baby's bottle.
3. Pour the warm milk into a clean jar, or jars, over a dollop of live yoghurt, from a previous batch, or from the shops to get you going.
4. Keep the jar warm overnight. I have a small warmer, but you could use an insulated box wrapped in towels, or a thermos flask. I have even heard of using a crock pot on its lowest setting.
5. Chill and serve with honey, fresh fruit, or your flavouring of choice.

Then there's my 'CREAM CHEESE':
1. Simply suspend some yoghurt in  muslin / cheesecloth / hessian / clean tea towel over a bowl.
2. Leave it for a good few hours. The contents of your 'bag' become the 'cream cheese', and the WHEY collects in the bowl underneath.

WHEY is protein-rich  and good for us, and so to USE IT, and not LOSE IT, it goes into soups, breads or sauces.

And those are the basic steps of my dairy dance. It is a dance of thankfulness for food on our table, and happy satisfied tummies and taste buds.