inner pickle

recipe for homemade arrowroot biscuits

More make-it-from-scratch insanity...

Arrowroot biscuits!

My kids don't eat a whole lot of Arnotts' Milk Arrowroots (unlike rice crackers, the absence of which has left a bit of a gap in our snacking,) but I love them (and so does Tilly) and I thought it might be fun to see if I could reproduce them. 

I read the ingredients label: wheat flour, sugar, vegetable oil, condensed milk, salt, baking powder, arrowroot flour. 

My first attempt I used 125g softened butter (being uncomfortable cooking with vegetable oil) mixed with 0.5 cup sugar, 1.5 cups self-raising flour, 0.5 cup arrowroot flour and then 0.5 cup condensed milk. 

Terribly dangerous using less than a full tin of condensed milk in any recipe, I say. Just too tempting to dip in that spoon...*gargle in back of throat a la Homer Simpson*

But I digress.

I baked these for 15 mins on 160°. Here they are:

They were very yummy, a very shortbread-like, buttery biscuit (read: 'cookie' by the way, if you're in the U.S.) but they didn't really taste like Arrowroots. 

The kids loved them. I made these yesterday which makes making another batch today sound insane except we visited a friend after school today (with four children) and took them with us. Goneski! 

Went back into the fray today (with Tilly's help) and made the ones in the photo at the top. 

These rock. They actually taste like arrowroot biscuits but are softer and obviously homemade. Pretty happy!

Homemade Arrowroot Biscuits

INGREDIENTS

2 cups wheat flour (self-raising)

1 cup icing sugar (or confectioners)

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup condensed milk

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 cup arrowroot flour

1 egg

METHOD

Mix all dry ingredients together well, then stir in condensed milk and oil into well in the centre of dry mix. Stir well and when bound together, knead until smooth. Roll out at about half a centimetre thick and cut with round cutter. Bake at 150° for about 15 mins or until pale golden.

Enjoy with a cup of tea! And a three year old who cannot believe her luck: bikkies two days in a row. This is living. 

xxx

making stuff from scratch

What I've been making:

1. Home made peanut butter

 2. Home made basil pesto

3. Home made tomato sauce 

I can hear some snorting (yes I can hear you). As in, seriously lady, why would you bother. 

Tell ya why - because it takes two minutes in a food processor, it's cheap, and you know exactly what is in it. 

I'm a keen cook. I've always made most things from scratch. It's my kind of fun. (Dork.) 

But I also have two kids who react to artificial colours and flavours and our house is seriously way more peaceful when they have a really clean diet. (I reckon one of the worst offenders that affected my kids behaviour was plain old rice crackers. Even the plain ones have an unidentified antioxidant in the salt. Bad. Rice crackers are on my list to try to make sometime soon.)

And really, once you've made your own peanut butter I'd challenge you to ever go back to Kraft. Homemade is just so. much. yummier. 

Sadly can't try it out on anyone other than Tilly as the boys of the household hate and detest the stuff. 

Henry will move chairs at the breakfast table to get away from peanut butter on toast - mine or his sister's. 

But if you like peanut butter, give this a whirl! I bought roasted and salted peanuts which kind of defeats the purpose of being all from-scratch-etc and obviously you can roast and salt your own. But this was just too quick for words. 

1. Recipe for homemade crunchy peanut butter

Ingredients

4 cups peanuts (roasted and salted)

3 tablespoons peanut oil

Method

Throw 3 cups of the peanuts into the food processor and whizz for a good couple of minutes. It'll take that long for the nuts to break down and become oily. Once mostly smooth, throw in the peanut oil and whizz again for a minute. Then add the last cup of nuts and whizz up until desired chunkiness. 

I don't want to overstate it but this is the best peanut butter you'll ever eat. 

2. Recipe for home made basil pesto

I used this one because who doesn't love Jamie's "handful" of this and that instructions. Encourages you to cook by taste! I used 3 cloves of garlic which in retrospect was a tad garlicy and a 70g packet of pine nuts, maybe more than a handful. Totally delicious though. 

I served it over homemade gnocchi with fresh parmesan. Hmmmm.

3. Recipe for homemade tomato sauce

Ingredients

4 truss tomatoes, sliced

handful of dried herbs

salt and pepper

Splash of olive oil

Method

Slice the tomatoes onto an oven tray and sprinkle with herbs and olive oil:

 Bake in a moderate oven for about half an hour then whizz till smooth in a food processor.

I stirred it through orrichiette pasta for the kids. Yummmm. 

What's something else I can try? Bueller? Ever look at something and think: I should make that?

Hope I haven't brought on a peanut allergy in anyone...

xxx

zooland(er)

So while we're on the subject of zoo-land (weren't we?) guess where we went this weekend?

Taronga. It has to be the best zoo in the world, surely.  

So much fun. So many amazing things to see and talk about. 

And because I am a Class A Dork (as you know)  I was probably less excited about seeing Pathi Harn, the very little, very cute new baby elephant than the big eco demo house and garden. In fact, no photos of Pathi but about 8 of the vegie and herb gardens. Dork. Told you. 

And this is an un-enhanced picture of the view from right near the pygmy hippo's enclosure:

Those pygmy hippos. View and a pool. Awesome real estate. 

And one more of Tilly sleeping through a walking excursion (only the end bit as we were leaving.) Tuckered out little person. The only time she stopped talking about the giraffes. 

xxx

  

dog day

I LOVE dogs. Love love love them. Don't have one. Grew up with lots of them (a.k.a farm hounds or as Dad referred to them, co-workers.) Had a very big badly behaved Alaskan Malamute/Alsatian cross called Kiska a number of years ago who I still pine for. 

Our friends with the rabbits? They just got a dog. 

Just look at that face. Meet Turnberry. Yes, I had to ask too. James is a mad golfer. 

 There was a lot of running and chasing and screaming. Marvellous. 

When we got tired of playing run-away-from-Turnberry we played hide and seek.

James' hide and seek technique is a tad flawed.

Surrounded by clowns.    

xxx

hat for my fella

Not sure if you saw my first attempt at this little project, here. Not so good. 

So I cast on again, still no idea what gauge means (must look that up) but added more stitches and hoped like heck this one fitted. It does.

 Not bad hey?

If anyone is thinking about using this pattern (it's totally easy and if you figure out the gauge please let me know), I think I cast on about 86 stitches in this yarn which I've had for a hundred years in my largely ignored knitting box, with no label on it so no idea what ply it is or even what exactly it's made of. Part wool, part acrylic I think.  

Ad has a pretty big noggin, (who knew THAT was something you should be checking about when considering reproducing with someone) and this hat actually fits really well. 

And he is incapable of standing still in front of a camera for more than a minute without pulling out Blue Steel. Also something I perhaps should have investigated before the whole reproduction thing. 

Too late. 

 Pretty happy with that hat. 

And because that first attempt will be a newborn baby hat (our newborn baby, aha!) but is not particularly girly, I also knitted this pretty little one:

 Am now officially a dead keen knitter. 

xxx

day off

Yesterday, in fact. Usually a work day but had a scheduled physiotherapist appointment so worked today instead. So, a day off! Henry at school and Tilly at daycare. Deeeeep exhalation of breath. 

And off to Spotlight to see if I could track down more of that lovely bird fabric in Tilly's skirt... nope, sold out. But they think they'll get more in and if they do I'm going in for all of us!!!

Anyway, found a few other treats (have I just outed myself as a TOTAL dork? a day off and I'm happily wandering around a budget fabric shop?)

 That top one is a gorgeous muslin, I'm thinking baby wraps...

 

And the bright stripes is a soft, soft flannel, for PJ pants for Miss Tilly...

Ooh and some ric rac, maybe for the bottom of the next skirt...

And these are going to become number 20 on my left-hand-side new things list!

And one of the most lovely things about a day off? A slow, relaxed lunch. Although I'm quite fond of the work lunch, wandering around with my fabulous work buddies searching out sandwiches and stir-fries. But at home, alone, it's very peaceful. A good moment for these:

Corn cakes with sweet chilli, tomato and avocado salsa.

I didn't make these specially, just for myself. I had the mix from dinner two nights before.

In my corn cakes, if anyone wants to know:

2 cups plain flour

1 dessertspoon baking powder

2 eggs

1 cups milk

1 tblsp melted butter

1 chopped red capsicum

2/3 cup sliced spring onions

1/2 cup fresh chopped basil and coriander

corn off 4 freshly cooked cobs 

Mix it all up. Whack them in a frypan. Serve with sweet chilli sauce and a bit of salad.

So fresh and yummy.  

This recipe is a mashed version of Bill Granger's corn fritters (a tad too frittery for me) and my favorite Nigella flapjack recipe.  

It was such a relaxing day I somehow managed to end up with a migraine. And of course no medication for a pregnant lady. Pretty happy about that really. 

Anyway, got a bit of relaxed and therapeutic knitting done before the headache hit, which I'll share over the weekend. 

Hope you had a wonderful week and have a fun long weekend planned if you are an Australian celebrating ANZAC day. 

See you over the weekend!

xxx

hanging onto Summer

Never thought I'd say it after living through three Brisbane summers but I am clutching onto these last warm Sydney days before Autumn really rolls in.

I went with Henry on Saturday to a birthday party in a park for one of his school friends and it was such a gorgeous warm day, I looked through all the (wonderful) maternity clothes people have given me and everything looked a bit hot (and I'm pretty rotund right now!!)

So I dug out a favourite scarf that had made it's way back to me along with a big bagful of other maternity-wear treats. I had actually hand sewn this scarf up to make a triangular shawl for sister Suze when she was pregnant, so I unpicked it and cut in a neckline and machine hemmed it and here it is - birthday in the park top. 

 Kinda looks a bit like a sack but I reserve the right to wear sacking at this point!

Hanging onto fresh summer dinners before I really hit the soups and stews too - this one used the last tin of tuna in the pantry (if you have any interest in vegetarianism read Eating Animals and I challenge you to ever eat meat again. Not saying I won't ever, just saying can't now.) 

 This was a quick and fresh dinner. Just cooked durum wheat pasta and stirred through cherry tomatoes, small pieces chopped cream cheese, olives, fresh coriander, sliced spring onion, flaked tuna and the juice of one lemon.

 Sprinkled with fresh grated parmesan.

The kids loved it (but they are kinda freaks about anything with olives in it.)

Hope you're having a wonderful week whatever your weather.

xxx

sewing skirts

This skirt for Tilly was so much fun to sew:

 

I bought a gorgeous book a little while back, Sewing Clothes Kids Love, and this is their Insa Skirt. I was really inspired by the authors' theories of colour and fabric matching. Nancy and Sabine feel that children need and deserve colour - so true! And essentially that fabrics that do not match "match" when they are sewn together, that the seam connecting the fabrics makes all the difference. I love that.

Tricky to get a photo of the little lady standing still...

 Sweet, hey?

So quick to sew (once you can actually sit down long enough to do more than one seam) and such a sweet shape with the double skirt. 

One more of these I think. Gosh I wish I'd bought more of that gorgeous bird fabric - gotta love Spotlight! 

xxx

Beanie for Adam

So I mentioned before that I was knitting a beanie for Adam. 

Last night I cast off and sewed it up (pattern is a ribbed flat hat knitted up on straight needles, good for new knitters. Free pattern from here.) I presented the finished hat to Adam.

Except something had gone horribly, horribly wrong. 

Please see below The Beanie, not modelled by Adam because when he put in on/ perched it on, I was laughing too hard to hold a camera still.

Oops.

 Doesn't even fit the five year old. 

Let's try the three year old?

Well that's a real shame.

I think it was Tilly that suggested it might fit the new baby.

Well I guess that's something. 

   

It'll be a winter baby after all, even if we are in temperate old Sydney. The baby's ears will not be cold, that's for sure.

And so, I cast on again, many extra stitches and in a chunkier wool.

 

Let's see if this works.

And if it doesn't I might have to figure out what the heck a 'gauge' is - it does seem to appear on every knitting pattern... maybe it's important. *cough* 

Tomorrow: a completed sewing project that did not fail!!

xxx

and just a couple more oldies while archiving all these photos...

I am BUSTING to know what this new bubba will look like of course. Henry was so dark and Tilly so fair... Check out this little fella in his orange. (This suit has just now come back to us after being around at least four other babies!)

There's one in every collection. 

 Oh those young and carefree parents of one!

OK that's it, I promise. 

Back to normal programming next week!

I hope you have a wonderful weekend. I have some produce markets, knitting, sewing, and cooking planned. Hooray! With lots of stories, painting, lego and trampolining thrown in (I'm watching these days, not jumping, just to be safe! Keen to meet bubba but not just yet!)

xxx