EH is Back - and going Onwards, and Upwards!

EssexHebridean

taxi73 wrote: »

quite a lot done there then..me done zilch

That's allowed for you! :kisses3:

EssexHebridean

OK - Avon Sales leader lady is coming round to see me on Wednesday evening to get me started. I've made a start on putting together some advertising-ey bits, leaflets etc which will hopefully boost sales a little. Have printed one of each off and they look good - thanks to my Mum for the templates!

Went for my walk this afternoon - and went the slightly longer way round to get to the RSPB rserve to save paying 50p each way to go via the toll road. As a result, I am pleased to announce that today was a NSD here at EH Towers! :T

Have noted the Boots christmas shopping evening in my diary - must put together a list of essentials to buy to get to the £50 spend, then the extra points will, as this year, pay for essentials that come up as required through the year.

TCB clicks are done and will hopefully track tomorrow - I have spotted the Holidays Uncovered one for £1 a time - done my second one tonight and reckon I can think of two more to do.

Stir fry for tea was nice - followed up with the rest of the crumble from yesterday! Have thrown the other two bits of chinese bacon in the freezer.

Right - off for a soak in the bath now - sleep tight everyone!

Phoenix27_2

Thought I would just pop by as you have been so helpful on my diary in the past week, it is much appreciated.

I only aim to be as organised as you sound. I will be back if only for all the lovely things you think up to cook.

Best of luck with the Avon venture x

chevalier

EssexHebridean wrote: »

Constructive day!

Please could i have the recepes for the raspberyy and apple muffing and the flour tortillas? Always good to have recipes that someone else has road tested first!

Sounds indeed like you have had a constructive day. I think the thing with the flour is pretty horrendous. It is happening over here aswell. Thing is the actual bread in the supermarkets is pretty naff most of it. And as my youngest won't eat seedy bread it is a pain. I am wondering though if it is getting to the point in the UK, where buying bread again is going to be cheaper?
chev
ps thanks for the reminder about cashback sites, will go and investigate again

EssexHebridean

chevalier wrote: »

Please could i have the recepes for the raspberyy and apple muffing and the flour tortillas? Always good to have recipes that someone else has road tested first!

Sounds indeed like you have had a constructive day. I think the thing with the flour is pretty horrendous. It is happening over here aswell. Thing is the actual bread in the supermarkets is pretty naff most of it. And as my youngest won't eat seedy bread it is a pain. I am wondering though if it is getting to the point in the UK, where buying bread again is going to be cheaper?
chev
ps thanks for the reminder about cashback sites, will go and investigate again

Absolutely to both - will post them in a second.

I was starting to wonder the same thing about bread. At the moment it seems that Tesco are out on a limb - MySupermarket still shows Asda at 50p a bag. If it does increase everywhere though, it follws that the bread prices will increase alongside, so really the cost difference will still be the same in "real terms" I think. This week we're both eating Asda reduced price rolls for lunches mind - they sell them off at 5p a pack in the evening so I got the makings of 11 lunches one night last week for 15p! Can't beat that! Last time I worked out that our batch of rolls (8 rolls) cost under 50p to make - and have the advantage that we know exactly what is going into them of course.

EssexHebridean

180g plain flour
100g Porridge Oats
(you can also use just flour, or a smaller quantity of oats, or substitute oatmeal, just make sure that it totals 280g and that no more than about 100g is oats etc)
1 tbsp Baking powder
Pinch of salt
105g sugar

250ml milk (I use skimmed)
90ml Oil (ideally sunflower or corn - but definitely NOT Olive!)
2 eggs
1 tsp Vanilla extract if you have it.

A couple of handfuls of fresh or frozen raspberries
a couple of eating apples, peeled, cored and cut into small dice.

Prepare a muffin pan with 10-12 cases, and preheat the oven to about gas 5.
Mix dry ingredients together in a bowl
Mix wet ingredients together in a jug.

Chuck the fruit into the dry mix and stir to distribute - if using fresh raspberries dont throw them in yet as they'll break up too much. Make a well into the centre and add the liquids, then stir in just enough to combine - you don't want to over-mix. If using fresh raspberries stir those in gently once the rest is mixed.
Spoon into the muffin cases (makes 10 generous ones or 12 smaller) and pop into your preheated oven - I usually set a timer for ten minutes, turn the tray round, then another ten, after which it''s time to check if they're done - if not, turn again and given them another five, repeat until the tops are golden and if "dabbed" with a finger they spring back up. Cool on a wire tray for as long as you can resist them.

Aologies for the vagueness of the amounts on the fruit - it's a recipe I have adapted over time, but it seems to be pretty failsafe. You can also use the basic mix and add other things - chocolate, dried fruit and nuts go down well here!

EssexHebridean

2 cups of plain white flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. vegetable oil
3/4 cup warm water



Combine the flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl. In another bowl combine the warm water and oil.

Add the water/oil mixture to the flour mixture, one tablespoon at a time and mix the dough with a fork. Once the water is mixed in, add another tablespoon of water and repeat the process until all the water is mixed into the dough.

The dough will be sticky.


Kneading The Dough

Lightly flour a wooden cutting board and knead the dough.

Kneading is done by pushing the dough with the heels and palms, pressing, folding and turning for about 4 or 5 minutes. Add a dusting of flour when the dough gets sticky.

If the dough sticks to the cutting board while kneading, scrape up the dough and dust the board with a little flour and continue kneading.

Eventually the stickiness will go away and you will have a nice smooth dough.

Place the dough back into the bowl and cover it with a damp towel or damp paper towel. Let the dough rest for 20 minutes.

Divide the dough into golf-ball-size balls by pinching off the dough with your thumb and fore finger. Form each ball into a nice ball shape.

Place the balls on a flat dish making sure they don't touch each other and cover with the damp cloth.

Let the dough rest again for 10 minutes.


Rolling The Tortillas

Preheat a skillet or cast iron pan on medium high heat. You really can't beat cast iron pans for even heat distribution and their ability to withstand high heat without warping.

Lightly dust your cutting board or clean worktop with flour. Take one of the balls of dough and flatten it out on the cutting board to a 4 inch circle. Rub flour on your rolling pin and begin to roll out the dough starting from the center out. Roll the tortilla until it is 6 or 7 inches in diameter and about 1/8 inch thick. (I rolled mine thinner than this)

It's difficult to roll out a perfectly round tortilla so if that is important to you, you can always trim the tortilla with a knife.

I like their irregular homemade looking shape. No one can mistake these for store bought, especially when you taste them.

Don't be surprised if your kids take this flour tortilla recipe to new heights by making shapes out of the dough. Their creative little minds will be making homemade star shaped quesadillas!


Cooking The Tortillas

Back to the flour tortilla recipe...

Once you have rolled out the tortilla, place it on a preheated skillet. You don't need to add any oil or butter. Cook the tortilla for about 30 seconds. You will notice brown spots all over your tortilla. Flip it over and cook an additional 30 seconds.

Don't over cook it as you want the tortilla to be nice and soft.


Keep your tortillas warm by covering them in a towel on a plate or in a tortilla warmer.


Storing Tortillas

Tortillas are best eaten hot right off the griddle, but you can refrigerate andfreeze them too.

If you freeze the tortillas, wrap tightly in plastic wrap and put them in a ziplock bag. When you are ready to use them, first thaw at room temperature and then wrap them in foil and place them in a 250 degree oven for a 10 to 15 minutes.

I don't recommend microwaving them as this tends to toughen them.

This is the recipe exactly as sent to me, and I followed it pretty accurately. It occurs to me though that you could easily add fresh herbs to the mix. They're not kidding about how sticky the dough will be initially, however to my amazement it did come together and ended up nice and smooth. I also found they tok a little longer to cook, although that might be me being too cautious with the heat.

EssexHebridean

OK - quick update.

The iPod Nano and iPod Touch that I put on eBay have both sold this evening - OH will print off the bits 'n' bobs at work tomorrow and we'll pack them up and get posted on Saturday morning. :j

I have all my stuff to get going on Avon and we have this evening sorted out the books to go out - I'll take those out either tomorrow evening or Saturday I think, then it's fingers crossed for some orders! OH is taking a book to work, and I must make sure I go round the neighbours as well as the girls at the rugby club.

NSD yesterday, but failed today. Will fail tomorrow as well as I'm going to Morrisons for the shopping - I'll buy meat on their 3 for £10 deal as it seems to be the bet of the supermarket deals. Also want to call into Sainsburys for cheese as they have a special offer, and hopefully Asda for eggs as they're doing 2 x 15 free range for £3. I can sense a lot of eggs on the menu for next week! Grocery budget still stands at £41.43 but that now equates to £1.97 per day as of this evening.

Cashback clicking is going OK - I've got £80 pending on Quidco at the moment and just £9 on TCB but I only got going on that regularly as from last week.

Right - I'm yawning my head off here so will say goodnight! xx

EssexHebridean

Helloooooo!

Well, a fairly constructive couple of days. Shopped at Morrisons last night as I'd planned - went for their 3 for £10 meat deal for mince, casserole beef, and pork shoulder steaks. Also got some lamb bones (41p) which were actually ribs, and with a fair bit of meat left on them, so those were eaten for tea tonight! And some Pork Cheeks - half of which will go into my tagine for a slow cooked dinner for tomorrow. Got a few more routine bits in there at the same time - spend was £16.48. Today have been to Tesco just for Milk & Bananas - spend £2.64, and Sainsburys for Cheese, mushrooms and potatoes - spend £6.13 The grocery budget now stands at £66.68 - or £2.90 per day.

Other stuff - went out with my first lot of Avon books, those will need collecting in on Tuesday night so can I request lots of positive vibes for plentiful and generous orders please! Had a second gon at the ciabatta bread from MG's recipe - I was a bit wary after my disastrous first attempt but this time went swimmingly and the bread is lovely! 2 x eBay parcels were sent this morning - I got the postage spot on on one and slightly overestimated the other so that's fine. Also called inton the garage to arrange for a door seal which has disintegrated to be ordered - no cost on that as it's a warranty repair, they are apparently aware of the probloem and will do the passenger side one at the same time "just in case" - so hurrah for Renault!

Plans for tomorrow will be a trip into town - Asda for eggs, and OH wants to go into Wilkinsons apparently. At some stage OH will get a call from a chap he plays rugby with to tell us if there are a couple of rabbits ready for collection, skinning and portioning out for the freezer. We'll need to look out a couple of jars of chutney, jam or marmalade to swap for those. I might also head over to the big Tesco Extra not far from here as I could do with new smart shoes or boots, but don't want to have to spend a fortune on them.

Hope everyone is having a good weekend!

taxi73

some good shopping and planning there.
good luck with the Avon books