Meal Planning Monday 30 September

This week's plan is very much subject to change- the meals will stay the same but the days may be shuffled around a bit. One day I plan to make chicken laksa, which needs beansprouts. I always  like to use beansprouts on the day I buy then - but I've not decided yet which day I'm going shopping. At the moment I'm revelling in the fact that it's the first end-of-month in almost 9 years that I've not had deadlines to meet and magazines to print and mail, so I'm enjoying having no routine at all and that extends to my shopping! Another day I'm making pizza but we have some of Mark's purple tomatoes earmarked for the topping and they are still a few days from being perfectly ripe, so the pizza may have to be held over until the weekend.

But here's the provisional menu:

Monday - thatched-cottage pie with runner beans

Tuesday - cauliflower and leek cheese with jacket potatoes and baked tomatoes

Wednesday - chicken laksa

Thursday - home made pizza with purple tomato topping

Friday - roast lamb with parsnips, cabbage and runner beans

Saturday - steak and chips

Sunday - Mark might be cooking, but if it's me, we'll have black bean chilli with brown and red rice. And of course runner beans!

Find more meal plans over at At Home With Mrs M

Home Made Tomato Ketchup

Mark's home grown tomatoes this year have been amazing - I say "have been", that should be "are". They are still groaning with fruit and it's almost October. Our freezer is full of sauce, we've had baked tomatoes or a tomato salad with practically every meal, our granddaughters have left clutching bags of cherry tomatoes after every visit and still there are trays of tomatoes all over the dining room table.

This week I decided to have a go at making tomato ketchup. Much as we love the well-known-brand variety, with so many tomatoes available it really seemed a pity not to.

The recipe I used came from the River Cottage Meat book and can be found on the River Cottage website. I omitted the red peppers, as Mark can't eat them, and the celery seed as it's not something either of us is fond of so we don't keep it in.

At the start of the week, I made a half-quantity to see how it worked. That filled two jars - and one of them is already gone. The sauce is absolutely delicious - rich, sweet and tangy, and as a bonus it has far less added sugar and salt than the bought variety. So today I made a full quantity, four jars. That gives us five jars in the fridge, and once the initial novelty has worn off, I expect we will use it at about the same rate as the bought stuff so it will last us several months.

A tip - if you have no muslin (or, as in my case, know very well that you have, but can't find it), that sort-of-fabric like semi disposable cleaning cloth you can buy makes a great substitute. Make sure the kind you buy isn't impregnated with any chemicals and only use it fresh from the pack. You don't want a piece that's just been used for wiping the floor!

The tomatoes and onions, ready to cook

The seasonings and spices are added 

Christmas Shopping - Fifties Style!

This week's challenge at CD Sundays is "The 1950s" so naturally I went straight for my Joanna Sheen "Viva la Divas" CD. I love this CD for the selection of 50s style images brought bang into the 21st century with their witty captions.

There's lots of attention to detail - if you look carefully through the back window of the car you can see an authentic 1950s street scene, complete with a classic Morris Minor in the background. But what I love most about this image is that having been a little girl in the 1950s myself, I can remember having a coat exactly like the one the little girl is wearing.

 

 

Another Autumn card

Autumn is my favourite time of year, so I'm always tempted by stamps, dies and embossing folders with an autumn theme. This autumn leaf background is one of my newest toys, and I was delighted that this week's theme at ATCAS is Autumn

 

The falling leaves are made with an embossing die. The top and bottom ones are cut from the same piece of card - the colour and appearance seems to change according to the angle of the light - I've taken photos from two different angles to show you what I mean.

Less is More week 139 - sketch #10

This week it's a sketch challenge at Less is More and this is the very simple sketch

Despite it looking so simple, I now have abandoned half -made cards scattered all over my craft table.  They WILL be finished- but they won't be CAS!

I'm trying to get well ahead with my Christmas cards this year as I know that October is going to be very busy, so I had a play with my new snowflake dies (and in the process, discovered that the one I've used here, the largest, has 8 sides instead of six. Naughty! A snowflake always has 6 sides, it's a basic fact of chemistry!)

I had my usual struggle to photograph the metallic card!

Batch-making Christmas Cards

The first few years I made Christmas cards, I tried to make all our cards -and we send about 80 - identical. And I got BORED. So then for a while I made cards throughout the year - two a week from New Year to November produced plenty to go round.

This year, however, I didn't start making Christmas cards until a couple of weeks ago. Inspired by the "One sheet wonders" I've seen on blogs and Pinterest, and by my ever-growing collection of bits and pieces, I decided to make small batches of about half a dozen cards "The same but different". That way I don't get bored, but don't have to spend half an hour choosing materials afresh for every card I make.

Here's how it's going so far.....

Easy bread machine naan bread

Over the years I must have tried dozens of recipes for naan bread, and gradually I've distilled the parts I like from each of them into a recipe of my own. You probably don't own a tandoor oven - I certainly don't - and if you are anything like me, you don't want to risk burning the house down by finishing them over an open flame, or clogging your arteries by smothering them  with ghee, so these will never turn out like the ones you get in restaurants. But what you WILL get is a delicious, soft bread ideal for mopping up the gravy of your favourite curry.

You can add flavourings to the dough - herbs, seeds or spices - but I think the plain ones are more versatile.  The recipe makes 6. We usually use two straight away and freeze the rest in pairs. The dough can, of course, be made without a bread machine, but if you have one, why have a dog and bark yourself?

500g white bread flour
1 sachet dried yeast, or if you buy it loose, ½ level tablespoon
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp caster sugar
1 beaten egg
2 tbs sunflower oil
1 small carton natural yoghurt
milk (see below)

You will need two baking trays, dry not greased. If your oven has three shelves, you can use three trays, otherwise you'll need to cook the bread in batches.

Put the yoghurt into a measuring jug and make up to 250ml with milk. Add  the egg and oil and whisk together.
Mow load up your ingredients into the bread machine in the right order for your machine, keeping the baking powder well away from any liquid.
Set the machine to the dough setting and start it. Once finished, leave the dough to rise for at least another half hour, as the milk and yoghurt will have slowed down the rising process.

Turn out the dough on to a floured board, knock back and divide into 6 portions. Roll each into an oval  about 20cm by 12 cm, so that they will fit side by side on your baking trays, two to a tray. Leave the rolled out naans on the floured board, covered with a floured cloth, for about 40 minutes.

Meanwhile, place your baking trays in the oven and heat it to its very highest setting.

Take one tray out of the oven and quickly slap two naans onto it, put it back in the oven and cook for about 5 minutes until the breads are puffed up and have browned patches on them. Repeat with the other tray, and when the first tray is empty, re-use it for the final two breads.

As the breads  are cooked, remove them fro the oven and stack in a clean cotton cloth, wrapped around them to keep in the steam. This makes them very soft.

Serve immediately, or wrap in foil and reheat just before serving.