Family of 5 'shop from home'food storage challenge...

JAMIEDODGER

morning:D

ok so i just caved and bought a dehydrator on ebay. its brand new 46.50 with delivery, british plug. im a happy bunny.

lil_me

Thanks for posting the link again Kethry, I am not used to looking on blogs, Rhonda's was the first one I looked at, wow, that kitchen is lovely.

As far as kitchens go everyone seems to like mine who comes into the house except me it's just a little modern for me, granite floor tiles which are glittery and a pig to clean/keep clean I would prefer the colours used in Rhonda's
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v241/lil_me/house/kitchennew.jpg?t=1197113750 mine. The benches & cupboards go round the wall on the left, microwaves in a hole in the wall, BM on those benches. There is a utility which has a breakfast bar which I like as it's a 2 level one with what is like a shelf on the top, great for when having a mexican, pizzas etc as food goes on the middle, the fridge freezer and washer are out there too, tumble drier and huge fridge freezer are in the garage.

Found the brisket, that's out defrosting now, chicken something for dinner, thai style I think, sweet chilli and lime marinade, not decided what to do with it yet, some chinese style veg, green beans and maybe the noodles that fell out of the cupboard yesterday. Boys can have plain chicken in breadcrumbs, chips and sweetcorn. Got some yellow stickered hot dog rolls out of the freezer for lunch for DS1 and DP, sausages in those as there is plenty. DS2 and me are having baked spuds, prawns for me, beans for DS2.

Spotted several things as I was rummaging which I'll try and think of something to do with over the next week, gammon joint, gammon steaks, 2 bags of stewing steak, more mince, curry base mix and more chicken, couple of pizzas, then there are HM stuff I have frozen like chilli, steak stew, corned beef hash, bolognese sauce, chicken korma, lasagne etc mostly in single portions so ideal for when DP is at work/meetings etc this week & next as being the festive season he'll be working more and taking more pack ups.

Must make more bread today, have used all that was in the freezer up. I need some fruit for DS1 so might have to go and get that today, some more milk, ham, breadrolls (DP insists on softer than I can make for work but cheaper than him eating at work!) & eggs, loads of apples in for DS2. I need to go to the tip so I could pop to Lidls while I am there, I hate shops on Satudays! In fact too many apples, I might put some in the dehydrator, thanks for the reminder Jamie, hope you get loads of use out of yours.

morwenna

Nigella has a good recipe and they do come out soft, even when I do them! It's from Feast, I expect it would be on her web site too. If not let me know and I will type it up.

I am experimenting with Dee's Apple braid dough to make stollen

kethry

lil_me - that is a lovely kitchen, at least to look at, i seem to remember you saying that the cupboards had been very badly designed. (or was that someone else?)

well yesterday was cleaning day: i cleaned the bathroom, top to bottom (including the floor and the toilet eww) and reboiled the onion marmalade - thanks for the feedback, Yategirl, it worked perfectly, is now thick and gooey! Today i'm giving my back a break and working on family history stuff, its a present for my grandmother and great aunt, a report on their family, i've gotten back to the start of the 18th C in most cases, so following the lines down as far as i can, and i've even managed to get in touch with a modern day descendent from another branch of the family, which is lovely! Then later, when i need a break from the computer, i'll be heading out to the post office and the fruit & veg shop. And walk the dog. in horrible weather. not looking forward to it!!

hope everyone has a lovely day..

keth
xx

lil_me

Morweena I have searched on her website, no recipe found just tells you what book they are in, I don't have that book, if you could copy the recipe for me I would be grateful, I am yet to make a soft roll soft enough to keep him quiet! I'm still yet to find somewhere successful for rising apart from my bedroom floor

Yes Kethry, only one is a 'split in 2 cupboard' the rest have 3 shelves in each so tricky to get anything tall in. I have everything like flour, cereals, pasta etc in big containers. I like the corner ones which have the revolving shelves in, they're great. After I empty them a bit DP is going to see if he can move them around, put 2 shelves instead of 3 in another one for my gadgets/appliances. Dehydrator is on the floor in a box as doesn't fit anywhere.

morwenna

lil_me wrote: »

Morweena I have searched on her website, no recipe found just tells you what book they are in, I don't have that book, if you could copy the recipe for me I would be grateful, I am yet to make a soft roll soft enough to keep him quiet! I'm still yet to find somewhere successful for rising apart from my bedroom floor

500 - 600g Strong Plain bread flour
1/2 tbs salt
1 sachet easy yeast
1tbs sugar
375 ml milk
20 - 25g butter
Combine 500g flour with yeast, salt & sugar. Warm milk and butter together until milk is warm & butter is starting to melt. Add the wet to the dry ingrediants and form into dough, adding spare flour if required. Knead and prove until doubled in size. (Interestingly, she notes that she puts her dough to prove on a pile of newspapers....I do the whole bit above in my bread machine :rotfl:

Knock it back and shape into balls the size of walnuts, place on baking sheets about 5mm apart so that once they prove, they will be just about touching. She gates 30 balls and arranges in six lines of five. (I make mine bigger as we must be greedier than her family!) Cover with a tea towel and leave to rise again for about half an hour, pre heating oven to gas 7 as they rise.

Nigella beats an egg with 1tbs milk and a pinch of salt to glaze these before baking and sprinkles some with poppy seeds, some with sesame seeds and leaves some without seeds. I tend to leave the seeds off(fussy eaters!) I usually glaze, once left it off(just comes out paler) and once just brushed with milk as I had no eggs. Came out fine. Bake in oven for 15 mins until golden and all joined together in a batch. I usually put mine on a high middle shelf as I tend to do these when I have the oven on for roast potatoes, which go on the top shelf.

I hope these work out for you!!

ravylesley

JAMIEDODGER wrote: »

morning:D

ok so i just caved and bought a dehydrator on ebay. its brand new 46.50 with delivery, british plug. im a happy bunny.

I ordered one of these a few days ago so mine should be delivered soon I cant wait.I have mentioned it before but maybe we should do a review of these products as it seems we have all got different ones to try and find the best one?

Well I'm having a right pig of a day.Its one of those days where everything conspires against you so you never get anything done.The weather is awful and I've had my brother camped in my front room all morning so I've not got any baking or cleaning done and now I will have to run round like a headless chicken trying to catch up.I desperately wanted to try the apple braid again today as last time I made it,it was a little gooey and uncooked inside.I also want to make some iced jam doughnuts.I'm going for the easy option with tea tonight I'm going to make fajitas, the kids love them and best of all its easy and quick on the washing up

I'm still intrigued with this Raclette as we've never tried it.Not sure If I'm intrigued enough to buy to cheese and the griddle though

Well off to do my headless chicken routine catch up with you all later

Lesleyxx

lil_me

Thanks for that recipe, it will be tomorrow when I try them hopefully, I think I need more bread flour aswell as I thought I had more but can't find it, must have used them, pleased it works with the first part done in the breadmaker, saves lots of time....

JAMIEDODGER

i cant wait to get it:D im so excited (that is soooo sad!)

im busy thinking of all the things i could dehydrate:D

jcr16

afternoon all.

Well i am actually having quite a good day.

i fell aslepp on sofa last night baout 11 woke up at 2. went to bed , only to find not tired one bit. so i nattered to hubby about loads of thing's had a great convo until he dozed off half way through. so i can downstairs painted the wall again in lounge , did some laundry , emptyied dishwasher and re-filled it , tidied up . got loads sorted. went to bed at 6 am woke at half 7 to make hubby a flask , and the kids got up.

i've made a bakewell( in oven at mo ) , mince pies , lemon oat bars and going to make sausage roll's in a min,

And i've made a currry which is in slow cooker.

Also got loads of xmas shopping done online. wrapped some more pressie's.

Got a feeling i'll be snoring by 7 lol. although i need to pop out to get a gammon joint as in-laws having dinner tomoz with us.

Hope eveyone is all ok , and enjoying this gorgeous wet and windy weather . I LOVE IT