Chicken with Alfredo and Spinach

I know my taste buds were on track today and it was a good day to make mini-pizzas!

I got my Almost-Like-Papa-Johns-Pizza-Dough recipe out and mixed up two batches.

I hand formed small six-inch pizzas and  brushed the crust with olive oil mixed with garlic and salt.

Then I took out a jar of Alfredo sauce, put it in a pan, added some more cream and  fresh garlic and a little flour and water to thicken it.

I chopped up some leftover grilled chicken (  I almost used turkey, but stopped myself. ) and very thinly chopped  fresh spinach.

Layer:

1. Alfredo

2. Chicken

3. Spinach

4. Mozzarella

5. Light sprinkle of sea salt

Bake at 425.

Instant hit with the family!

I also made roast beef with Alfredo sauce, horseradish and provolone cheese pizza and of course, just plain pizza with turkey pepperoni.

More Pizza! Cheese and Pepperoni and Chicken Alfredo

Theresa

What’s in your bathroom cleaners? This lady is in for a surprise…

Funny though this clip is, the message is serious. We need to choose our bathroom cleaners wisely so we aren’t hanging out in nasty chemicals just when we’re trying to get clean.

I use Earth Choice cleaners throughout my house. I know some people make their own cleaners, or just use some bi-carb and vinegar, but honestly, I don’t have the time. I need something I can grab and spray. Earth Choice cleaners are made without nasty chemicals and are packaged in small containers using a minimum of plastic. The plastic used is recycled and recyclable. The cleaners are concentrated so you don’t need to use as much, thus minimising waste and the need to buy more bottles. There are all kinds of cleaners, for all parts of your house.

No nasty suds-men in my bathroom!!

We got back from walking George this morning to find a Royal Mail slip had been pushed through the letterbox.  Its hand-written message read: “package left behind blue bin.”  I went outside to collect the brown padded envelope, already knowing that its content would be the sausage casings we’d order online.  The dustbin might not have been the best location to leave them, but at least they’d arrived.

I went back inside, eager to check the contents.  They were perfect – just like the natural sheep casings from our previous supplier, except these were half the price and only took two days to arrive. “So next week we’ll start getting ready for Christmas,” we decided.  “Next week it’ll be sausage making time.”

There’s no particular reason why we associate sausages with Christmas.  It just that we’ve always done this ever since we got married, gradually adapting the pork and beef recipe that my wife learnt from her mum to the pork, leek and sage variety we’ll be making this year.

I’ll publish the recipe and process in a future post.  But for now I’ll leave you with a picture of the ones we made last year – hung up to dry and ready for Christmas.

Miss Maree placed an order with me for four custom-designed draft snakes for Christmas.  One for each of her brothers and their families, and one for her Mum.

Would you like to meet the family?

This is Florence!

Likes: Fairy floss, flourescent felt pens and flavoured fudge

Dislikes: Foul smells, figs and feral cats

And this is Herbert!

Likes: Hemingway, hummingbirds and hotdogs

Dislikes: Hermits, hunting and having to hurry

And this is Hunter!

Likes: haggling, habaneros and hula hoops

Dislikes: haggis, Halloween and housekeeping

And lastly, meet Cordelia!

Likes: Cordial, crumpets and cat naps

Dislikes: Car racing, cabbage and cellphones

Maree picked the family up last night.  She said that if she didn’t already have lilith she’d have snake-envy for Florence!

]]> http://eatknowhow.wordpress.com/2009/11/26/whip-cream/ Thu, 26 Nov 2009 11:37:50 +0000 eatknowhow http://eatknowhow.wordpress.com/2009/11/26/whip-cream/

While store bought whip cream has the benefit of being “ready to go”, there are many who still enjoy homemade whip cream on pies and in hot chocolate.

1/2 pt. whipping cream
3 tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
Whip cream with mixer. Be careful not to overbeat or else will get too thick like butter. When it begins to thicken, add sugar and vanilla; stir. Refrigerate.

Well, tonight is the first of the night markets up at the town hall in Northcote! My bags are packed, I have checked and double checked and am starting to include all the things I might possibly need, mirror, sticky tape, pins… I think I better stop before I include the kitchen sink.

So a reminder to swing on by and see what we’ve got! Earrings, brooches, necklaces, bangles, platters…. yep, we’ve got it covered.

Fried salmon on mashed potato in sauce. Scrumptious!

J’ai déjà eu l’occasion de vous parler de la chronique “tous designers” réalisée par “l’Express Style”, je reviens sur un autre objet qui avait été créé dans cette optique. Cette fois-ci c’est le designer Jean-Marc Gady qui est à l’origine de cette élégante suspension Paradise.Toujours le même principe: il a été demandé à des designers d’imaginer un objet design que chacune et chacun peut réaliser chez soi à faible coût.

Le matériel:

36 boules en polystyrène: 5 de 15 cm de diamètre, 10 de 12 cm, 7 de 10 cm, 6 de 7 cm et 8 de 5 cm (www.crea.tm.fr, mais aussi dans de très nombreuses boutiques telles Cultura, ou toutes boutiques dédiées aux loisirs créatifs), 1 spray de peinture à l’eau blanc mat, 1 boîte de cure-dents, 1 tube de colle spéciale polystyrène, 1 rouleau de fil de pêche.

Le coût? Environ 50 euros. Le temps de préparation? … tout dépend de vous!

Qu’en pensez-vous? Pourquoi ne pas imaginer de réaliser cette suspension pour votre décoration de Noël, ou la poser dans une chambre d’enfants? Avec lumière ou sans, la suspension restera toujours féérique. Quoi qu’il en soit, si vous la réalisez, n’hésitez pas à m’envoyer des photos de vos créations!

This is one recipe that I really love. Friends and family are always asking me to make it for big and small gatherings. Easy on the budget and packed with goodness, it’s best when made with love, tastes even better the next day and it freezes well. A special treat served with Corn Bread or Bannock.

2 C. dried kidney beans (substitute pinto, romano, Jacob’s cattle or other big beans, or mix 3 or 4 together)

water

1 or 2 onions, chopped

2 cloves garlic (or 2 tsp. Garlic powder)

oil or fat for frying

1/2 – 1 pound ground beef (or use TVP – see below)

3-4 T. chili powder

2-3 T. cumin

1 T. dried coriander (cilantro), or 1/2 C. fresh

1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper (optional, add 2 or 3 times as much for a hot, spicy chili)

dash of cinnamon

large can crushed tomatoes (2 1/2 cups fresh)

1 tsp. brown sugar

2 T. vinegar (white, red wine, apple cider or balsamic)

small can peaches in light syrup (optional)

salt and pepper to taste

Soak the beans in water about 2-3 inches above the beans in a non-metal bowl for 6-8 hours or overnight. Discard the soaking water, add beans to a large pot and cover with fresh water an inch or two above the beans. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until the beans are soft (1 1/2 to 3 hours).

Cook the ground beef (or dry fry the TVP) until nicely browned and crumbled, set aside. Sauté the onions in a little oil until soft, then add cooked beef, garlic and spices and cook covered, for 5 more minutes. Add the meat mixture, tomatoes, brown sugar, vinegar and peaches to the beans and stir well. Cover and simmer over low heat for at least an hour to let the flavors blend, stirring occasionally to prevent burning; this is a good recipe to cook all day in a slow cooker or in the oven. Serve over rice.

Suggestions: Vegetarians and Vegans can substitute TVP dry-roasted with cumin for the ground meat to give a meaty texture and lots more protein. Offer crushed red pepper or Tabasco sauce at the table for people who like hot chili.

Hints: The beans will be more digestible if you add a piece of seaweed (kombu or dulse) to the beans while they cook, or you can add 1/2 tsp. baking soda to the soaking water to make the beans less “gassy”.

Time saver: For a quick chili, use 2 or 3 large cans of cooked kidney beans.

Note: Because this is such a good winter meal, we planned to make you a video of this recipe not too long ago when Brian and I were both in Toronto… didn’t work out. We will be getting to that asap, so stay tuned!

Much love, All My Relations, Gramma Willi

Good Clean Food For Everyone!

This is a great quick recipe, perfect for those times when you’re being careful with your money or don’t feel like shopping, but need to satisfy a craving for something a little sweet. I give recipes like this the name “magic” because they can be made with a wide variety of ingredients (Magical Options) and they come out a little different every time, depending on what you have in the kitchen…. they’re a nice dessert, a great snack, a quick breakfast and a super gift for friends and neighbours… enjoy!

Ingredients

Dry ingredients:

2-3 Cups Muffin mix and a few Magical Options (see below)

Wet ingredients:

1 C water, 1-2 T cooking oil (or melted margaine or butter) and an extra cup of water

Mix your wet and dry ingredients separately, then make a ‘well’ in the middle of the dry. Add the wet mix to the well, stir it through to coat the dry mix; keep adding water a little at a time until the mixture is moistened all the way through, but not too stiff to stir. Set aside.

Preheat oven to 350ºF and grease your muffin tins well. Fill to 3/4 full of muffin batter, bake for 20-28 minutes or until they spring back to the touch and smell just right.

Magical Options (pick a nice combination from below and use your imagination!):

1/2 cup shredded coconut 1/2 C raisins or currants, chopped dates, dried cranberries, papaya, apricots…

1/2 cup sunflower seeds, almonds, walnut or pecans

1 tsp. powdered ginger 1 tsp. cinnamon powder

1 plain chocolate bar, chopped (or 1/2 C chocolate chips, or 2-4 T. cocoa

1 small apple, chopped or 1/2 C blueberries, strawberries

Muffin Mix

1) Store bought mix: you can find cake or muffin mix on sale and add “Magical” stuff from your kitchen

2) Homemade mix: 3 cups flour (or 2 Cups flour and 1 cup oats) 2 tsp. baking powder 1/2 tsp. salt 3/4 C of sugar, or more or less to taste

Suggestions

Fruit Filling: Fill each muffin tin half-way and add 1/2 tsp jam, jelly or soft fruit in the middle. Fill the cups 3/4 full with the muffin batter and bake!

Time Savers:

1) Keep half of the batter in a clean jar in the fridge to make fresh muffins quickly anytime; the batter will keep for 4-7 days.

2) Make a big batch of dry muffin mix and keep it in the freezer – When you’re ready to make muffins, shale out what you need into a big bowl, add your wet ingredients and magical options and bake.

Sweet combinations:

“Fruity” explosion: Add chopped apple and a few raisins and berries to the dry mix; put a spoonful of jam in the middle of 2 layers of batter.

Ambrosia: Add coconut, ginger, cinnamon, almonds and orange essence, diced orange rind or mashed banana.

Gourmet ideas: You can blend a whole orange with the seeds removed into the wet mix, add some chocolate chips or cocoa to the dry and make a nice chocolate orange muffin!) How about lemon, poppy seed and cornmeal?

Savory Combinations: Leave out the sugar and add one or a combination of: Shredded cheese, chopped sundried tomatoes, cooked beans, diced carrot, fried minced onion, celery

Add herbs and spices – chili powder, oregano, rosemary, parsley , olive oil

Rough Times Bacon ‘n’ Egg Muffin: (you’ll never want to stop at a fast food place for breakfast once you’ve tasted these! ) Put a small piece of cooked bacon (vegetarians can use soy bacon), a bit of grated cheese and a spoonful of stirred raw egg in the middle of each muffin, fill the muffin cup with no-sugar batter (you can add a few herbs too!) and add a little grated cheese on top. Bake as usual.

Tip: Don’t have a muffin tin? Well, use a cake pan, a frying pan with a heatproof handle, small tart or other baking dishes – or get to the second hand store and find a nice muffin tin… it’s still probably cheaper than buying those store-bought muffins.

Much Love, Gramma Willi

Good Clean Food for Everyone!

Ravelry was such a good find for me. I’ve been a member of this knitting, crocheting, weaving and spinning community for some time now, but only in the last few months have I really been getting involved with some of the groups. There is a Cardiff Knitters group which I’m in, a group for Welsh yarn addicts and (the one I’m having lots of fun with at the moment!) a Harry Potter Knitting and Crochet House Cup! I joined only this term, and was sorted into Gryffindor, and the assignments have helped me to get most of my Christmas knitting and crochet done well ahead of schedule. But the extra fabulous special lovely fact has to be that I have won prizes for two of my projects! Yay!

The first prize I won was for this shawl/cardigan (the pattern is the Berocco Juliana) which I made for Maria for her birthday in September. She always dresses well, and likes to look elegant, and when I saw this pattern I hoped to be able to create something that was both elegant and a little out of the ordinary at the same time. I was quite pleased with the result, and glad that I persevered through the many weeks it took to knit it! I took this project into the detention class in September as I was worried that I wouldn’t get it done in time for Maria’s birthday if I didn’t get a bit of a kick up the bum to keep me motivated. Obviously it worked, and in October the ‘professor’ in charge of the detention room nominated my cardigan for a prize. It was against two other projects, and it was left to other students to vote for their favourite, and my Juliana won! I got my prize (all the way from Ohio) the other day – a beautiful kaleidoscope which gave me a very happy time as I sat looking at the mess in my living room through it, captivated by how beautiful it looked through the prism!

And yesterday I found out that I’ve won a second prize! But…I can’t tell you anything about it, because the item in question is intended to be a present for someone. At least the recipient can be proud in the knowledge (because you should be very sure that I will tell him or her!) that they are receiving a prize winning piece of hand crafted loveliness!!!

I will tell you all about it in January. TTFN!

You will need:

• Green paper/card
• Googlie eyes
• White and Pink paper/card
• Pipe Cleaners
• Stickers, glitter
• PVA glue and sticky tape

You can either scale down the template from the following link   http://www.hostessblog.com/wp-content/uploads/uploaded_images/paper_cone_template.pdf  or you can use a compass to draw a circle 8cm in diameter and then a protractor to mark off 210 degrees on your circle. Either way you want to do this on green card.

Cut out the circle, then the two portions and retain your waste. This forms the body and you can decorate it in any way you like.

Put to one side and take the waste and cut out two boot shapes. Bend the pipe cleaner in half and stick the two boots on the ends. Take the body and roll into a cone with the pipe cleaner sticking no more than 1cm above the edge (you want to be able to see the boots below the cone)

Now take the green, pink and white paper/card and cut an oval of pink, a beard shape of white and a hat of green. Stick together to make Father Christmas’ face and add the googly eyes in place.

Tie a peice of sting to the pipe cleaner to create a hanging loop and then secure Father Cristmas’ face to the pipe cleaner.

Now he’s ready to hang on you tree or about your house.

A nice variation of this would be a green man and earth/moon goddess as altar decorations. The Greenman would need to be all in green whilst the Earth goddess could also be in greens and browns, just use wool for hair. The moon goddess would look lovely in black/deep blue and white.

It’s the last week in November and the Christmas countdown has begun. Today I opened my brand new Dairy Diary for the first time and added next year’s holiday dates – two booked already, how fantastic!

It may just be my obsessively organisational nature but there is something lovely about opening a new diary and filling in all your details – with your best writing pen and handwriting of course! Then two weeks’ later the book is full of lots of scribbled notes in several different pens!

It’s been a very industrious and Christmassy weekend, with craft projects and ‘Stir-up Sunday’ – traditionally, the day when Christmas puddings are made – with the whole family joining in to ‘stir-up’ the mixture. We made delicious Calypso puddings from the 2010 Dairy Diary, refreshingly different with pineapple and mango as well as prunes and apricots.

Isaac's Christmas card

Working on the 2011 Dairy Diary, with its card-making feature, has inspired me to make cards for loved ones this year. I’m afraid time as a working mum doesn’t allow for all my cards to be home-made but the special people in our lives will get mummy-commissioned cards made by my son, who will be two in December. First we found all the buttons cut from my clothes over the past ten years (some in frightening colours and patterns!) and sorted them into colours. I drew a triangle on a ready-made card and Isaac spread the triangle with glue and covered it with buttons, placing an extra one underneath for the ‘trunk’.

He thoroughly enjoyed himself with gluing and sticking and they looked surprisingly good. The most effective card is a shocking pink with black buttons (especially for Auntie Claire according to Isaac!). Let’s hope Auntie Claire isn’t reading this…….

Something I LOVE to eat in the winter time and when I’m sick is rice porridge.  You literally just add rice with double the amount of water into a pot and cook it for about 20 minutes.  It’s delicious with a touch of soy sauce or kimchi.  There are restaurants dedicated to this delicious dish and can be made with thousands of ingredients.  I love using half water, half chicken broth and then adding a little shredded turkey at towards the end.  SOOOO delicious!

ahh…it’s cold and flu season and what’s the one thing everyone is craving?  SOUP!!  What better way to use all your turkey leftovers than to make a delicious soup.

Ingredients: chicken broth, celery, carrots, turkey, noodles, salt, pepper

Because the turkey always seem to outlast the stuffing, mashed potatoes, etc~ I always take the remaining amount and make it into a delicious soup.

]]> http://scgt.wordpress.com/2009/11/22/b-tool-by-ed/ Mon, 23 Nov 2009 03:44:01 +0000 scgt http://scgt.wordpress.com/2009/11/22/b-tool-by-ed/

(From Ed– Dated August 9, 2009)

I did the K-Mod on my Honda Reflex and here is something that I would like to share with the group:

I was not able to get the drive-face back on the crankshaft spline due to the belt being down below the V-section of the pulley. I tried everything I could think of plus Windex as lubrication but nothing worked.

After a few hours of trying I gave up and built a tool to aid in drive face installation. I am going to call it the “B-Tool” as you will see in the pictures.

Photo: Ed Weaver

1. I took an old belt and cut it into two pieces using a right-angle grinder.
2. I tapered one end of belt for about four inches using a utility knife to cut away the raised portions of the belt.
3. I then sanded down each side of the belt for about five inches, using a belt-sander with a coarse belt.  The belt is now tapered and is only about 3/4 in wide for five inches.

Photo: Ed Weaver

By inserting the tool between the existing belt and roller* and by rotating the clutch, I was able to have two belts around the roller*.  This moved the existing belt into the V-section of the pulley which then allowed the drive-face to slide easily onto the crankshaft spline.

Finally, I installed washer and nut finger-tight, pulled out the tool, torqued the nut and put her back together.  I have since put 1,000-miles** on scooter with no problems.

I would be delighted to answer any questions.

–ED

dunkkizing@yahoo.com

————————————————————————————————–

* Or, “Drive face boss” as Honda calls it (the steel tube between the belt and the crankshaft).

** Update (11/22/09) :  Ed estimates that he has had 3,000- to 4,000 flawless miles to date.

Christmas is coming and in an attempt to make it a little more special and hopefully a little less spendy, I am trying to plan ahead with some hand made gifts. I am feeling terribly organised to already have even thought of Christmas presents because I am usually a very last minute girl and this usually means expensive!

Anyway…being so proud of myself is one thing…saving money and having fun and giving a personal gift is another so check this out!

I made Mint Jelly! All by my own self. Sorry to anyone who ends up receiving one of these gifts because it will now not be a surprise.

It was so easy and affordable considering I have mint overtaking our front flower bed thingy. And fun too. We’ll have to taste test one jar to make sure it’s edible and all, but looks great to me! (Just hope it sets)

What to do when your 10 years old niece comes to visit you? We may have a dozen of options, out of which what to choose? If you ask me I would say Pizza, Pizza and only pizza. My niece Rinnu loves it a lot. This time when she comes for holidays I want to surprise her with the freshly done home made pizza. We used to have it at least once in every two weeks. I have tried a couple of different recipes, but that crispiness of the base was always missing.Finally I end up with elisa’s special Italian recipe for the Pizza base, and it worked. The tasty cripsy restaurant like Pizza was there right infront of my eyes!!!!

Homemade Pizza Recipe

Ingredients

Pizza Dough: Makes enough dough for two 10-12 inch pizzas

1. 1 1/2 cups warm water
2. 2 1/4 teaspoons of active dry yeast (check the expiration date on the package)
3. 3 1/2 cups bread flour (can use all-purpose but bread flour will give you a crisper crust)
4. 2 Tbsp olive oil
5. 2 teaspoons salt
6. 1 teaspoon sugar

Topping

1. Grated cheese
2. Onion cubed
3. Capsicum cubed
4. Shallow fried chicken sausages
5. Tomato cubed after removing the seeds

Making the Pizza Dough

1 In a large bowl of a heavy duty electric mixer, add the warm water. Sprinkle on the yeast and let sit for 5 minutes until the yeast is dissolved. Stir to dissolve completely if needed at the end of 5 minutes.

2 Mix in the olive oil, flour, salt and sugar on low speed for about a minute or until the dough is smooth and elastic. If you don’t have a mixer, you can mix and knead by hand.

3 Place the dough in a bowl that has been coated lightly with olive oil. Turn the dough around in the bowl so that it gets coated with the oil. Cover with plastic wrap. Let sit in a warm place until it doubles in size, about 1 to 1 1/2 hours. If you don’t have a warm spot in the house you can heat the oven to 150 degrees, and then turn off the oven. Place the bowl of dough in this warmed oven to rise.

You can freeze the dough in an airtight container for up to two weeks.

Preparing the Pizzas:-

1. Preheat the oven to 450°F for at least 30 minutes, preferably an hour.

2. Remove the plastic cover from the dough and punch the dough down. Divide the dough in half. Form two round balls of dough. Place each in its own bowl, cover with plastic and let sit for 10 minutes.

3. Working one ball of dough at a time takes one ball of dough and flattens it with your hands on a slightly floured work surface. Use your palm to flatten the edge of the dough where it is thicker.

4. Spread 2 teaspoon of pizza sauce on a pizza base, arrange vegetables and sausages over it and sprinkle grated cheese on the top (getting ready for baking).

5. Bake at 250 * C for 15 minutes / till get golden color

Here you have some wonton soup with vegetables. I used what I had available at home, it is Sunday and I am too lazy to go out for more authentic ingredients. Basically, I made a chicken stock, boiled wontons (filling from yesterday) and added some finely chopped white cabbage, carrots and spring onions. It was very nice, looks a bit messy but very tasty.