freshly picked recurrants

blackberries and cookies

http://www.flickr.com/photos/markhillary/

We went picking blackberries today, yum... A friend of mine, Kate, recently bought a new house, on a bit of land, which happens to be covered in brambles! They've made jam already, and today, when Emm and I dropped in to bring cookies and borrow some maternity clothes, we decided to pick some more! Her two boys, and my little one, of course picked all the berries straight into their mouths, thoroughly destroying their clothes and covering their faces! Such a pity I didn't have my camera with me, it all looked so idyllic, Emm hasn't had the freedom to just roam around such a big area since we were at my parents'! The sun was on our backs and when we had enough berries, we picked a few cooking and eating apples to go with them. Kat's youngest started to get tired and cranky, so we headed back to the house to put him to bed, and I cooked the rest of us some sausage sandwiches.

When we got home Emm happily went to sleep, and I checked my mobile to discover to my embarassement that I'd totally forgotten about the window cleaner, for whom I was going to be home hours ago! He did my windows anyways, accidentally setting off the alarm, which called my mobile (unanswered in my handbag in the car), then P's mobile, who thankfully managed to switch it off remotely and then sent a neighbour around to check... How embarassing! I spent the rest of Emm's nap making phonecalls apologising to people, and the rest of the cookies went to support that cause...

Tomorrow will most likely be spent making something with the blackberries, maybe blackberry and apple jam? and something else with the last of the plums from our tree, i'm thinking german pflaumenkuchen! And I'll have to get the rooms ready for my mum and my aunt, there's some more tidying and bedmaking to do. And I'll have to try and spot and fix all the little things that i generally don't notice, like spiderwebs in the corners, the ironing basket, and dust behind the TV!

We need to talk about Kiev...

...is the title of this Irish Times article by Domini Kemp, on Chicken Kiev!

I made both the Kievs and the salad with mustard dressing today, yum yum!

Emm loved the salad! I gave her the crunchy bits of the cos leaves, and some of the dressing as a dip, and she ate it all! I made the dressing with lemon juice, instead of vinegar, and as I'm not keen on graininess of our wholegrain mustard, i whizzed the dressing up with the liquidiser, causing the cream to start looking whipped! The finished product looked a lot like thin mayonnaise, but mmmh, so much more delicious! I substituted fresh tarragon with dried, and added more lemon juice at the end.

I had to make the Kievs without the pine nuts, as I wasn't going to spend 6 quid on rancid looking kernels in the supermarket (they'd gone brown at the tip, that's not normal, is it? (Don't get me started on the yoghurt I accidentally bought, not looking at the best before date, it's only just 4 weeks and 2 days out of date! I wonder do they not check the dairy shelves at all, ever, or are they deliberately trying to sell it anyways? Grocery Customer Services weren't even apologetic or surprised when I called them afterwards! They just said, 'Ah, yes, come in with your receipt and we'll refund you.')).

The Chicken Kievs were quite work intensive to make, But I now have some lovely homemade garlic butter in the freezer, and 2 more chicken kievs and 2 'chicken tenders', which is nice to know. The kievs turned out lovely, really moist, with a crispy coating. The cooking time in the recipe didn't work for us at all though, it said to bake them for ten minutes, after frying golden on both sides, but it took nearly 20 minutes and we lost some precious garlic butter in the process of checking if they were done.

The recipe said to just serve the chicken and salad, but in keeping with German and Irish tradition I made some potatoes too, which by the way were great with the dressing!

Off to Bogland tomorrow...

mmmmmh Buchweizentorte (buckwheat cake)

I had 7 toddlers, 2 babies and several mums in my house this morning, pandemonium! My little one learned to climb onto the armchair and the coffee table and to open the patio door! (probably from the other kiddies!) . She had to run off her sugar rush (loads of raisins, carrot&pineapple muffins, cowboy cookies and mini rice cakes) before her sleep, but she went down eventually!

I used the time to peel raisins off the floor, sweep and mop the whole place, wipe down the furniture, do the dishes and put on a wash (I know, my life isn't very exciting...), and now am deservedly sitting down with a coffee and a slice of buckwheat cake, marveling at what a perfect combination of flavours it is!! So good I had to post about it immediately! The recipe is from the back of the flour bag, with some improvements my mum came up with over time.

Buckwheat cake (Buchweizentorte)

Beat

5 egg whites until stiff, set aside. Beat

5 egg yolks with

150g caster sugar until creamy.

Sift

45g self raising flour,

45g buckwheat flour and

1/2 level teaspoon baking powder, add to egg and sugar mix, and stir until just combined.

Carefully fold in the egg whites and pour the mix into a lined spring form (about 9in diameter)

Bake at 175C for about 30 min in a fan oven, or about 40 min in a normal oven, or until an inserted skewer comes out clean.

Leave to cool under a clean tea towel.

For the filling you will need

about 200g (half a jar) cranberry sauce (LIDL do a good one, it's called either cranberry sauce or Preiselbeeren),

about 300ml (single/whipping) cream and

25-50g good dark chocolate (60% cocoa is perfect).

Whip the cream and chop or shave the chocolate. Cut your cake into two slices (three if you are able to, I'm no good at it! You'll need more filling if you do three)

Spread the bottom half with cranberry sauce and a layer of cream. Put the other half on top, spread with cream (you can cover the sides as well if you like) and sprinkle with chocolate. Go mad and do fancy little cream puffs with your piping bag if you like, and/or decorate with more of the cranberry sauce!

Keep chilled until serving, ideally for a few hours. Still very tasty on the second day, but don't count on any being left!

cowboy cookies

I made the cowboy cookies from 'vegan cookies invade your cookie jar'! They are so good!

The first batch I made with almonds, 60% chocolate from LIDL, and desiccated coconut, I didn't have ground flax seeds so i liquidised some golden linseeds with the soy milk, and it did turn to a gel like liquid as described in the book. The cookies turned out delicious, if a little dense.

                                                       

The second batch was made as the 'cowgirl cookie' variation, and i replaced 1/4 cup milk and 1tblsp ground flax seeds with 1 egg. The cookies are even more delicious, a little crunchier and lighter.

I've given loads of them away, to friends, and P brought some into work, and the rest are in my cake tin. I hadn't heard of cowboy cookies before, they are my new favourites. Next time I'm going to try freeze some of the dough, so i can make them fresh really quickly, when I have guests.

Other news, Emm is standing up on her own! And teething worse than ever, the poor mite!

another knitting lunch break, and pancakes

As the weather was so nice Emm and I went to the seaside again, after a not so exciting trip to B&Q to get sealant for the leaking toilet (blurgh). Emm fell asleep on the way there so I got an hours knitting on her "little sister's dress", while looking out at the sea and sky and passersby. And eating mini chocolate rice cakes. after that we went for a walk, and to discover that the shoe shop that used to do the 'startrite' kids shoes, doesn't do any childrens shoes any more! And that the special offer of 1€ Johnson&Johnson wipes in the local shop excluded the unperfumed ones. Coming to terms with the fact that this just wasn't going to be a fun shopping day we went to the play ground, where Emm had lots of fun on the swings, and she walked all the way back to the car, still mostly insisting on two hands (my back is sore, I hope she'll get a little braver soon, we're practising lots so fingers crossed).

I'm so grateful to have my own car, it's such a treat!

Oh, yes, Pancake Tuesday, we had german style pancakes (big thin ones), with a creamed spinach filling (bacon, garlic, chili, spinach, cream, nutmeg, and some leftover grated mozarella). No photos unfortunately, and for dessert we had the leftover pancakes with real maple syrup! the shop assistant was trying to get me to buy the cheaper syrup, he felt guilty for the price difference, not realising that the cheaper one wasn't maple syrup at all, but golden syrup with maple flavouring! I try and stay away from artificial flavours as much as I can! I'd rather buy the real stuff, once a year, than have the cheap one all year round! Emm quite liked the spinach pancakes, we rolled them up for her, but she preferred the maple syrup ones!

So weird, Pancake Tuesday, I know a good few people here, that eat pancakes only on Pancake Tuesday! In Germany there's no such thing, everybody is either tired out from karneval, or still celebrating Fasnacht/Fasching! When I was a kid, we had pancakes about twice a week, and now my mum still makes some at least once a week, more often if her grandkids are over. She serves them with molasses or jam, as a special treat we sometimes got fried banana with them, but in the days before non stick pans it was a lot of extra cleaning up!

In the area I come from there's also buckwheat pancakes, a very savoury affair, quite bitter! They are made with coffee, water, eggs and the buckwheat flour (and salt if you're not using bacon), and fried in lard or oil, with  tiny pieces of bacon thrown in. They are very thin and crispy, and we had them regularly when my granny was still doing the cooking.

The savoury pancakes came into the picture in college, spinach soon becoming my favourite. They were such a quick and easy dinner to make, not too expensive, and getting some protein and other useful things into me, and using up lots of veg from the fridge.

And tonight, we had shredded duck and pancakes, the chinese kind! You know, the really thin little pancakes, spread with hoi sin sauce, thin slivers of cucumber and spring onion, then rolled up with the duck meat? So yummie, a bit naughty, but we had some steamed broccoli, too, to balance it all out!

black bean burgers

Mmmh, I made these mini black bean burgers today, they were really nice! I had to use black bean sauce, that was the closest to fermented black beans I could get locally! I also couldn't get maple syrup, so used golden syrup for the sauce, I added some sweet chili sauce as well.

I soaked the black beans for a whole day and then simmered them for several hours, I really have to start cooking more beans at a time and then freezing them, or maybe start cooking them in the oven when I am making something else. I wonder is it more environmentally friendly to buy tinned beans?

We had half for our lunch (Emm had less chili in her sauce), the other half I packed up for my friend H, who's going on an early flight tomorrow. I made her a little lunch bag, with the burgers, dipping sauce, some mini carrot&pineapple muffins, an apple, a few nuts and raisins and some mini chocolate bars. She's a vegetarian, and travelling with a small child, so her airport food options are limited.

I'm looking forward to making these again, I think I'll make double the amount, they will make great snacks for Emm and me, and lunches for P.

Chai Mix

thanks to angry chicken i made this chai concentrate! I didn't have ground cardamom, so i cleaned my coffee mill by grinding some rice in it, and then ground some green cardamom pods, unfortunately not to a fine powder... but i managed to strain out the shell pieces. i used freshly grated nutmeg, and I might have overdone it a little, my chai was definitely nutmeggy! i might add more cinnamon and cloves to the mix, but i'm giving it another while, to see does the flavour change a little in the next few days.

Great sunshiny day

We had a great sunshiny day today! I decided to drop a book back to the library and take Emm for a walk by the sea, she fell asleep on the way so I decided to have a little knitting lunch break for myself! Listening to classical music on the radio and looking out at this...

Seaside lunch break
Originally uploaded by tulpenpink

When she woke up we went for a walk, it was quite windy so we went into the town for some lunch, just us two girls! We sat outside a cafe in the sun and had gorgeous fish pie, chatting to the ladies at the other table who were besotted with my little girl. Everybody was so friendly, a sunny day does that to people over here! I had a nice coffee, Emm and I shared a macaroon, yum, yum! And then we had to get some foodshopping done.


Thinking what a great day we'd had, I arrived at home, only to see my friend Cate pulling up outside, I hadn't seen her in over a week so we had tea, banana bread and a good chat in the house and Emm was over the moon, as always when she sees Cate (who's a primary teacher and brilliant with kids). Then we all went across to my Neighbour V, where we got more tea, and biscuits, and the kids had a ball.


M had no trouble going to sleep tonight and my beloved brought home some really good chips after football, and we had them with spicy chicken wings that I'd put in the oven earlier, mmmh! So good, so bad and so easy!


He's off to the pub with his football mates now, so I'm enjoying some online time and some more knitting! Life is good!

strong bones without dairy?

I was visiting my neighbour today, so our little daughters could play together, or, as the seem to prefer at this age, play on their own while eyeing each other up suspiciously every now and then, and to take toys and treats away from each other!

We were talking about their diets, and Abby was saying her daughter used to hardly eat anything, it was a battle to get any food into her, even when the granny tried to give her ice cream and other treats, she'd just have a nibble and then walk away from it. Until she talked to a nutritionist who advised her to take her 14 months old daughter off dairy! She was really reluctant to do it, because of all the general advice out there, stressing they have to drink loads of milk. After some deliberation and with a list of other foods containing calcium, she went ahead with it, and could not believe the change it made! within a few days her daughter took to her food, enjoying all her meals and snacks! She suspects the milk and formula was making her feel full or queasy, so she never felt like eating, and now, without, she's got an appetite.

While Emm loves all her food, she does have eczema on her wrists, behind her knees and on her ankles. I'm pretty sure it has to do with teething, as it gets worse whenever she has other teething symptoms, too, but I wonder would taking her off dairy make a difference? I'm generally suspect of  messing with babys' and toddlers' diets, but she doesn't actually like to drink milk, so I wonder is that a sign? She does like her milky porridge though, and cheese and yoghurt, and whipped cream (surprise, surprise!)...

We feed her a diet of mostly unprocessed, natural foods, withing reason. Milk alternatives, like soy milk, are very processed, and I'd prefer not to introduce new artificial foods to replace (relatively) natural foods, like milk, but if it improved her eczema, it might be worth it?

I tried to google the topic but the amount of sites from animal activists, calcium supplement manufacturers and old school pediatricians is overwhelming, so I don't know where to get info on calcium content, and also quite importantly, calcium absorption rates, without spending hours researching and copying data into spreadsheets...

I'm worried about her calcium intake, and vitamin D, too, but I wonder how much of that is fueled by dairy council propaganda... Nutrition really is a mine field, once you start thinking about it, taking into account protein intake, vitamin D levels, absorption rates... But at the same time, we all seem to do reasonably well on our less than perfect diets!

making boxty

A little treat for lunch today... unfortunately they didn't turn out the way I remembered them! I had a recipe, but I never wrote it down! I was making them quite regularly for my husband in the early days of our relationship, trying to impress him! I'm still fairly sure it was 5 potatoes, 1tsp of baking soda, a pinch of salt, and then flour and milk, but their quantities i can't remember! Today I went with 3 tblsp of flour and an unmeasured amount of milk, and they turned out a little too soft. But I'm not sure now was it the temperature (too hot, not cooking them long enough) or did I maybe put in too much milk, or maybe the amount of flour was all wrong too? I don't know!

Does anybody have an all-raw-potatoe boxty recipe? This one I got from Peter's granny, who sadly passed away last year. It was one of those 'a few of these - a bit of that' recipes grannies like to give out, because they've spent some 60 years cooking it, there's just no measuring necessary!

quick spaghetti carbonara

Today Emm and I had spaghetti carbonara for our lunch. I make it this way:

whisk 2-3 eggs, a tblsp of milk or cream (optional), pepper, nutmeg and some grated parmesan together (you don't need salt because of the bacon!).

cook some spaghetti in plenty of salted water, towards the end of the cooking time add some frozen peas.

chop some bacon or rashers and fry until crispy.

drain the spaghetti and peas, and immediately add them and the bacon to the egg mix, stir around until the egg begins to set (the heat from the pasta is cooking the egg, but make sure you use fresh eggs from a trusted source!)

serve!

a night out and yummie soup

I made this yellow split pea soup today, it turned out lovely, fresh and lemony, and the ginger gives it a nice kick! We had it for lunch, and Emm had some cold basmati rice mixed into hers. She absolutely loved it. I also made the broccoli and dipping sauce, but I had to substitute sherry for mirin, and lemon juice for lime, and my soy sauce was dark, it turned out quite dark and bitter. Might try it again some time, if I can ever get a hold of Mirin or Sake! 

The soup is really healthy, lots of garlic and ginger and lemon juice, and pulses. It was quite filling, too! I like to cook vegetarian and dairy free some days. I like meat and fish, but don't need it every day by any means! I worry about getting enough protein, iron and calcium though, especially for Emm. Going meat free some days means I can buy better quality meat, and free range on the other days. When I buy free range chicken I make the most of it and get 3 meals out of one, plus chicken stock. 

On Friday Night I spent my first night away from Emm! She was 15 months yesterday, if you count the pregnancy as well I have spent every night with her for the last two years! I was a bit apprehensive, but we had a good night with the girls, out in town, and three of us stayed in a hotel, they had a special offer on that made it as cheap to stay in the hotel as to get a taxi home, so we decided to enjoy our hangovers in peace! we got back to the hotel around 3, and spent another hour taking silly photographs and falling over laughing and drinking tea (there was no mini bar :-( ). It took me another hour to get to sleep while the other two slept as soon as they hit the pillow. I'm surprised I turned out to be the kind of mother that finds it hard to be seperated from her child, I always thought I'd happily leave them for a long weekend! Although the other girls told me it gets a lot easier when you have two!

Knowing she was safe with P helped, of course, I still can't imagine leaving her with anybody but my mother, if P and I wanted a weekend away together... 

Did I mention I finished breastfeeding a month ago? She doesn't seem to miss it at all! We were down to just the morning feed, I think it helped that it wasn't the evening feed, it was easy to distract her in the morning, she must have been ready to give up i suppose. The main reason I gave up is to get a chance to maybe have another baby soon! I feel passionate about breastfeeding, so few babies in Ireland get to nurse, the statistics are quite sad! I'm sad to be finished, but I'm glad we got to 14 months after such a difficult start! 

I baked bread!

This is the second batch of white bread I made this week! I'm delighted, two in a row that worked out! After a very bad attempt last week (the bread was stale as soon as it was out of the oven! too dry!) it's nice to see it work out. I don't have an exact recipe, but it goes like this

1 sachet of dry yeast
mix 250ml milk - and 250ml warm water
1 teaspoon of salt
1 tablespoon of oil
enough white flour to make a good dough

I have a foodmixer, so I start with the yeast, half the milky water and a little flour, stirring it with the dough hook attachment to a yoghurty consistence. I then leave it until it starts to bubble up, maybe 20 minutes? Then I add the rest of the water, the salt and oil, and on the lowest setting, slowly add flour until the dough is nearly, but not quite, dry enough to handle. Turning it out onto a floured surface, I knead it some more, adding more flour if needed, then return it to the mixing bowl, cover with a clean tea towel and put into a quiet, warm place. There I leave it for about an hour and a half or until doubled in size. I knock it back, shape two loaves and put them into two loave tins, leaving them to rise for at least an hour, after that I check on them and if they look well risen I preheat the oven and as soon as it's hot they go in, 200 C in a fan oven for 45 minutes (although I think I might have done 220 for 35-40 minutes the last time... I really should write these things down...)

The loaves are nice and airy, with a hard crust on top, but squishable on the sides. There is some satisfaction in pulling good bread out of the oven! I already passed half a loaf on to my neighbour who's forever giving me thick slices of her cakes to sample! And today she brought two scones from Avoca, yummie!

Other news... we have realised Emm doesn't really need the night feeds any more, she's just waking up for a little drink and cuddle! So for the last week and a half I have more or less weaned her off the night feeds, with P's help. He's been looking after her when she wakes up, which is usually around 4. Some nights it just takes a soother to get her back to sleep, others she needed a little cuddle. Last night I tried to take over, but no luck, she could smell my milk and just wouldn't go back to sleep! When she also started to cry I had to wake P, and within a few minutes she was asleep. I'm a little sad to hand over that ability to soothe her back to sleep with a little milk, that connection we have at night, but on the other hand, I have so much more energy! I didn't just dream of going back to bed while making breakfast, I actually bounced out of bed in the morning, and getting lots done during the day! She's nine and a half months now, and becoming very aware of what she wants and doesn't want, so maybe it's a good time...

redcurranty goodness

persian lamb - the BBQ version

grilled lamb (gigot chops)
onion-tomato-cucmber salsa (with a mint and lemon dressing), yoghurt sauce, and just to be sure, also a mixed salad with a lemon and garlic dressing (in that tupperware shaker thingy, it's a great little gadget, my sis got it for free at a 'tupper party' and gave it to me, how nice is that!)
fried rice and green beans, with parsley and dill
and for the baby some steamed veg. she seems to prefer the lamb chop though!

we also had some chicken, and then redcurrants and vienetta (yoghurt for the ice cream hating husband) for dessert. a lovely relaxing afternoon with the MIL and SIL!

Strawberry Buns

last week's, with a butter-cream cheese icing (the butter/strawberry/icing sugar mix didn't combine, so i added philadelphia, yum!

today's, this time i didn't give in and kept beating the icing with the liquidiser until it turned into perfectly pink butter icing (thanks jo!). then i added some more strawberry pieces, blitzed it briefly, done!

lemon cup cakes for stitch'n'bitch

yumm...
we sat outside until half eight or so, then it got too cold! it's such a pity, the minute the sun has disappeared behind the house it got chilly. It's something I've noticed in Ireland, even in the middle of a hot day, it's always cold in the shade, it's not like that in Germany, as far as I remember. I wonder is it latitude, or the fact that it's an island, or is it like that at any coast?

stitch and bitch birthday

chocolate and peach cake
my friend c made these! how cute! see the letter 'p' that's a hank of embroidery thread? there were balloons at the door, too! nice to get a little attention for a birthday, even though i've pretty much stopped counting!

as you can see, c, who's hosting, is a big emma bridgewater fan!

breadsticks for the baby!

i made these with

1 cup water (250ml)
1 tblsp oil
1 tsp dry yeast
1 tsp date syrup (instead of sugar)
1/4 tsp salt
and enough white spelt flour to make dough.

the breadsticks and mini flat breads i baked for 15 min at 200C, but the flat breads could have done with less, they are more like teething biscuits now. the rusks (zwieback) i baked for 20 min at 200C, then cut into slices, then baked again at 100C for about half an hour. (i think i'll have the rusks myself, with milky coffee in the morning!

i know we're not supposed to use salt for babies, but with the amount of salt i put in she could eat the whole lot over a day and a half and just about reach her salt limit. even i couldn't eat that many breadsticks! next time i might actually put 1/2 tsp salt in, they could do with a little more... (she'd never eat that much in 3 days either!!)
the rusks i might make again, with a milkier and sweeter dough.