Can of Carrots

Its not technically Can of the Week - for the astute reader it has taken two weeks to use up the cans of Baby Carrots. I do have my reasons and it is all not entirely laziness and lack of wanting to eat carrots from a tin.

Last weekend we were without water. The better half turned on a tap on Saturday morning (just before visitors were due to arrive) to be greeted with a screech and some brown mud. Ewww. So we did like all mature adults and headed to my mums. It is very hard to get by without water. We were greeted by the water truck on Monday, only to discover that the tank really wasn't in the best shape and sprung several leaks - literally pouring money down the drain (ok, not literally). This tale of woe ends here, we have water and are all bathed.

After some deliberation I used the can in making Carrot and Coriander Soup. In the words of Kath Day-Knight, I cracked onto the Internet and found a Jamie Oliver recipe.
http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/member-recipes/Classic%20Carrot%20and%20Coriander%20Soup/3138


It was easy, but was not perhaps the best tasting soup I have ever had. Still unsure if the blame is with my mediocre cooking skills or with Jamie Oliver, the jury is still out. We had a guest; she ate it all (I imagine out of politeness). One child licked her bowl clear, the other refused.+ I had some and the other half tried to make one child try it- while he attempted to eat bread, avoiding soup. I was caught up with hosting, so in my imagination this is how I presented the soup.

So onto the next can- crushed Black and Gold Pineapple. Answers on a postcard please. 

Can of the Week - Two Ways

What an exciting weekend! Ok it was just a very normal average one, but very excitingly I not only managed to use one can from the stockpile, but two. Life has never been more perfect.

For anyone who missed last week or was in a coma, we are moving and I am determined to use up all food stocks before we move. This is our seventh or so move in the last ten years and it's going to be our last. I am determined just to move what we need, last time we moved a can of creamed corn from the back of one cupboard, to the back of another. 

Fortunately, I had several suggestions of what I could do with my tin of pears. The poached pears in red wine sauce, did sound lovely, but I feared probably not a winner with the under-two contingent. I almost went for pears with rice and cream, but had already had rice pudding twice this week. Mmmmmm. My decision was made a little easier when I discovered I was blessed with two tins of pears. What a life :)

So on Saturday I presented the masses with Upside Down Caramel Pear Cake

http://www.goodfood.com.au/good-food/cook/recipe/upside-down-caramel-pear-cake-20121123-29uc1.html. Thank you to a lovely reader caller Janet-Micheal for the suggestion. 

 

I would love to show a photo of a stunning cake, but as you can tell from the photo, the caramel in the centre stuck.

 

If it was Masterchef, presentation would be nill!! But on a Peppa Pig plate I should at least get a smile and a wink from George. We all enjoyed it, definitely putting it on the rotation. 

Today was 'can two' of pears. I also found can a pineapple and killed two birds with one stone

and added an exciting twist of tropical pineapple to Pear Crumble. Thanks to the lovely Lauren, Verity and Louise for their suggestion. 

I had a ANOTHER mini culinary disaster when sprinkling icing sugar. It was definitely more of a localised blizzard, (as you can see from the photo) than a light sprinkling. It was also pretty tasty.

I have a feeling next week's Can of Week will not be as well received, tinned carrots :) Any ideas welcome, 'cause all I can think of doing with them is donating them to charity.

Can of the Week!

What the hell is this? I hear you ask. Well, we are moving in a few weeks and am trying not to take junk, when we go.

Though we have only lived here for a year, we have accumulated a rather big collection of weird canned goods. None of which are coming with us. So my aim is try and use them all up in a fun game of can of the week.

Today Mark was the guinea pig for Vegetarian Nut Roast.



Whilst we all dined on sausages (gourmet), he had nut roast burgers, grilled with halloumi. Luckily as you can see I burnt the halloumi, to add some texture. It's not Masterchef here.
 

 

The verdict was and I quote "not too bad", in my book that's a winner.

 Now all I need is a recipe for tinned pears, any suggestions welcome. 

Happy New Year

I am the world’s worst blogger, I will blame the nice weather and sea breeze for my lack of writing of late. BUT I have hit 2013 with renewed vigour and the idea that I will do more!!

Had an amazing supermarket free Christmas. To be fair I went to my mum’s, she provided food as far as the eye could see. They are still eating leftover now- there is one thing my family loves to do is over cater. We all like to invite people round and pile many dishes on the table, creating no space for plates or drinks. I have often seen a second table erected on for eating, thus creating a food and eating table. So much great food at Christmas!! My favourites was a vegetarian cheese course. Yum and extra yum.

My meagre contribution were some very tasty mince pies and rum balls from one of my favourite haunts, the Exeter Bakery. There fruit buns also come very highly recommended, you got a lot of fruit and I feel this is important in a fruit bun.

Back on topic we very excitingly went camping over New Year, luckily we went a grand total of 7 minutes from our house to Kelso. It was great and now back at work ready and raring to start the new year. According to Woman and Home (yes I like Woman and Home, both the Woman and the Home part) it’s the year of being settled.  I am going to settle in, buy in more independant shops and eat more veggies.

A No Supermarket Week in Instagram

It has been a crazy busy few weeks, busy at work, some great swims at the beach, sickness, a certain male member of the household moaning about his impending death, and the purchase of a label maker.  Have managed to capture the last week in instagram photos.

I have got back in touch with the humble omelette. As a massive Gavin and Stacey fan Gwen put me off for a little while, but back on the horse. Eggs were a playgroup fundraiser.

Some amazing cheese! Bought at the Tamar Valley Festival, had great Halumi Sausages as well. He's also usually at Harvest. The Buffalo Mozzarella was also amazing

One child took a break from eating to get his face painted as a "beautiful butterfly."'

The other child invites all her friends come for breakfast.

Got some great apples and onions today at Sidmouth. They were delicious and at $4 a bag, you can't go wrong. 

 So that was my week, basically lots of food bought from the side of the road and from round our local area. 

Guest Blog from the wonderful Helen of Ethiopia

I have no great pearls of wisdom like the fine author of this site, merely some experience of going supermarket cold turkey.  From having absolutely everything on my doorstep and passing 1 supermarket, 3 mini supermarket and a garage owned by a supermarket in my 5 minute journey home from work, I now find that the closest thing to a supermarket is 500km west of my current abode.  As you can see, my commitment to avoiding supermarkets has been rather more down to circumstance than choice. 

However, what I lack in ample, brightly lit aisles, festooned with whatever your heart desires I have more than made up for in a broadening repertoire of home cooked goods and a mild sense of smugness that I am making healthier food choices on a daily basis, and whilst my waistline is yet to see the benefits I’m sure that is soon to follow!

In place of veg aisles I have a daily market at the bottom of my road.  The colours and sounds of the women selling their freshly picked vegetables and haggling over prices is a much welcomed change (once you’ve got used to it!) to the bland concrete setting back home,  the whining children and wonky trollies.  At first I was going to say it takes a lot more thinking about but that is not so.  You can’t think too much about what you are going to buy because there is no guarantee what will be there.  Instead, I head down with an open mind and an empty bag and hope to return with it full to the brim.  Yesterday I managed to get some of the most magnificent chillies, onions, carrot, enormous sweet potatoes, large potatoes, garlic, tomatoes, oranges, freshly baked bread and quite excitingly cabbage!  I never knew I would be quite so excited about cabbage either!  (Some of the tomatoes turned out to be a little grotty but I should have checked them a little more carefully.)

So for tea, a delicious thai-style coconut broth.  Hadn’t seen that on the cards when I went to the market that evening!

Most things seem to be bought at least by the kilo.  Being used to my little jars of herbs and spices conveniently packaged I am reluctant to go for a full kilo of ginger!  On one of our shopping trips we asked the lady if we could buy one root and she looked at us as though we were crazy.  Handed it to us and then waved us, and our money, away.  Clearly, we were not worth her time or effort with such small amounts!  Nevertheless, should anyone wish to buy in bulk, I would recommend her quality produce!

For more cupboard staples, it generally involves a trip to Harar or Dire Dawa where you can get pretty much everything but is at least 40mins on a busy line taxi. 

When it comes to shopping here very little is convenient, even quick food such as rice, pasta and lentils need to be picked through before cooking - for fear of breaking a tooth on a rogue stone or the added roughage of a bug.  The ease at which I formerly went into the supermarket and picked up a ready meal, pizza or pasta and sauce had forced me into a little food rut.  Now I’m being shoved out of this rut and into a growing range of vegetarian dishes.  I myself am not a vegetarian.  This is possibly one of the major drawbacks to life without supermarkets.  I miss the wide variety of meat and the ease at which you can select it.  I’m gradually building up my confidence to head to the meat shack and get them to hack off a slab for me but I am not there yet.  

I am forgetting of course all the other bits and pieces offered in supermarkets that are not food related.   There are many options for this and part of the enjoyment is finding these items in the most unlikely of places.  Toiletries can be bought from a little girl who has a shop in a wall, artificial apple trees can be bought from the local market, sunglasses and curtain ties are sold side by side from street vendors.  The supermarket on campus – which I don’t really think counts as it’s more like a corner shop and certainly doesn’t carry the name of any of the trading giants you will be used to - seems to go into party goods in a big way!  I’m very much looking forward to the next occasion where I can buy a glittery top hat or birthday visor.  Alternatively, decorate a cake with giant candles and sparklers in every shade and hue.  Most of all I’m looking forward to buying their supply of snow spray and decorating every available surface for Christmas.  It’s amazing the things you can find that you didn’t even know you needed until they were offered to you!  Maybe it is more like a regular supermarket than I thought!

Helen has her own website about her life in Ethiopia. 
http://heleninharamaya.wordpress.com/

False Economy

Things that are a false economy- remember I have had 30 years now to ruminate on these things.  I am now on a tight budget, we want to buy a new house and there is no money for frivolous things or junk.

-Cheap garbage bags. Great twenty cents/pence/yen (insert the currency of your choosing) and spend twenty minutes clearing up bin juice. It is the grossest of all juice.  I have two kids under two, I know a lot about gross.

-Cheap nail polish. When it chips before it even dries, maybe don’t get your nail polish at the op shop.

-Shoes that cost under $10, they will look good for a day, ok for a week and let’s hope there are no puddles after that. I am very guilty of buying cheap shoes, I was a shocker for a getting a pair downstairs at Primark on my way out. (Obv Manchester Piccadilly Primark as it is the best).  

-Clothes from the op shop, not in your size (extend to the rest of the family and the kids will never fit into them) will never be of any value. As it is great to buy stuff there, since you will never use and will eventually give it back to the opshop, just give them a smile and donation on the way out. I like to buy a drink, if I get nothing. But that’s me, charitable and always thirsty.  

-Shoes for children who can’t walk. Reiterating-  they can’t walk- just pop some socks on if it’s cold and try not to cry when they have outgrown the shoes and never worn them.

- The library. I think this one is just for our family, as we are so lame at getting books back on time. We often get quite large fines, to the point where the lady said last time “Here’s my favourite donors”. Getting books out is nice and great on a rainy day, but returning and often trying to find them is not on.

Must go and darn some socks, to save a dollar. x