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

cheerfulness4

Thanks for the link JCR - and don't be overdoing it now you've a little bump to think of.

Made my rainbow cakes and I was well impressed. Actually DS2 made them and didn't believe that they would be coloured inside as he thought they would melt. His face when he pulled one in two was a picture. Unfortuanately gutsache has eaten over half so I've to run up a few more quickly for tonights supper and hide these ones from him. :rolleyes:

D&DD

Yategirl wrote: »

D&DD

GF pastry... HELP! well I made it.. had to add extra water to get the dough to hold together and then left it to chill... tried to roll it out but it just fell apart... no way will it hold a round shape for the mince pies... now I know it will be more crumbly but that seemed a bit too crumbly... any suggestions??

belladquidsin - Shirley's book is great - I have that one too! She has written a few but some are very difficult to get hold of. She has a blog too!

Hi Yategirl yes its a bit crumbly sometimes you have to really work it together with the egg and the xanthan gum then holds it all in a rollable piece usually :think: Did you use really cold water??

Yategirl

D&DD wrote: »

Hi Yategirl yes its a bit crumbly sometimes you have to really work it together with the egg and the xanthan gum then holds it all in a rollable piece usually :think: Did you use really cold water??

I thought I did... maybe it wasn't cold enough..... mmhhhh......

D&DD

GF pastry is probably one of the hardest things *apart from bread* to get used to making I think,as the whole chemically thingymajigs which makes pastry bind doesn't happen because of the different flours used...The xanthan gum replaces the gluten thats missing in the wheat free flours and *in theory* replaces the elasticity lost..with normal pastry you add just enough water to bind it together whereas you often use twice as much with the GF versions..
Where's the pastry now is it in the fridge?:D

Yategirl

no................................................................. it was... then I collected ds from school... and I looked at it and looked at it....... :rolleyes:

Yategirl

I know... very naughty of me.... I feel very guilty now

D&DD

:rotfl: I'll knock some up in the morning see if I can find an easier way to do it for you I've got about 5 different recipes for pastry so I'm sure we'll get there with one of them
*sorry got interrupted by the phone and now being dragged off to play The Tooth Fairy Game* :rotfl: Will be back in a bit !!

morwenna

I'm so glad I found this thread! It's so nice to hear about all your baking and store cupboards, my sister thinks I am a bit freaky with my stocks, but when ex hubby left, he left me a lot of debts and an overdraft I had to pay off immediately as the bank wouldn't release me from the joint account until I had done so - well he wasn't working and my wages HAD to be paid into somewhere he had no access to, so I paid it off with cash and all my "penny jar" savings. You so didn't want to be behind me in the bank that day! After subsequently living on pasta and potato scones for the rest of the month, I now break into a sweat if the cupboards aren't full!! Plus 3 children to feed too.

Jen: Glad the pheasant was good!

Has anyone got any tips for Slow Cooking? I don't seem to be organised enough in the mornings to fry off meat and veg etc and get mine going. Also worried about leaving it 10 and a half hours..

bellaquidsin

Thanks Yategirl. I've just sat down to devour the Shirley Goode blog. Your freezer soup for tea sounds good. It's lovely taking it out isn't it. I have spent the day putting it in so we have a little stock in hand. Your buns sound lovely. My cottage pie went down a storm and pudding tonight was 'free' mincepies from a voucher sent to me by Sainsbury's. Our local Sainsbury's had been having trouble with stocks at the warehouse and this was sent as compensation for any inconvenience caused. Strange though, nice as it is to get something free it just didn't feel right serving bought pudding as I have been a 'homemade is best' devotee all my life, well it just is, isn't it? I'm off now to catch up with Shirley Goode.

Yategirl

I agree.... shop bought/given as the case maybe(!) just isn't the same. I do like stocking the freezer up - some night we have freezer pot-luck which is 3-4 individual meals and we each have a bit of everything!! but it is nice to have a "free" meal and I love doing my meal plans so we can do this!! yeah... mad I know!

I've got dh making me some shelves to go above my freezer in the garage... am going to reorganise the kitchen and put the stuff I use only occasionally on one shelf in the garage so I can free up space in the kitchen and still have extra space in the garage for "me stocks" (!)