Home Food

Our kitchen is often a hive of activity! There seems to be always something being chopped, grated, mixed, stirred, fried, blended or baked in what is the heart of our home. Up at the island bench I love, which looks out to a distant horizon, I make the food we love to eat. Home food! There are so many benefits to cooking and eating this way. Benefits way beyond the deliciousness and naughtiness of a big bowl to lick ... 

A very lick-able bowl.

(That's chocolate pudding mixture in there!)

Each morning, starts with a nourishing breakfast. Perhaps an omelette or toast with egg and bacon or mushrooms. Perhaps warmed slices of a nutty, breakfast-y bread made days before and frozen for those busier mornings when someone has to be out the door a bit earlier than usual. Granola in the warmer months and porridge, with warmed blueberries, when it's colder. Always a fulfilling start to the day no matter what's on the table.

A slice of  nutty banana bread for breakfast.

An omelette with spinach and leftover roasted veg.

Weekday lunches are prepared and packed in a mini production line upon the kitchen bench (I have never quite mastered the night before packing of lunches). Leftovers from dinner the night before or fresh salads and always a sandwich or two! Weekend lunches are more leisurely, rounds of toasted sandwiches or fresh Turkish bread, if I've been to the little local shop that sells it, spread with each of our favourites. Weekend lunches are made whenever we are hungry and eaten with noses in our local paper or a good book.

Leftover roasted chicken and salads for lunch.

Snacks for morning and afternoon teas are mixed and baked on the weekends for the work and school days ahead. This week, it was Anzac Biscuits and a simple cereal slice. Often it's muffins, pear or banana, studded with little chocolate chips. 

A batch of little muffins ready for the oven.

Each night, at our little wooden dining table, we sit and share a home cooked meal. Nothing fancy, just simple food we enjoy. Over these meals, the highlights of our days are shared and the things we are thankful for are voiced. If we are cooking for a crowd, we still keep it simple and just increase the quantity!

 A quick macaroni & cheese bake.

A stir fry with lots of healthy vegetables.

A nourishing salad with lots of greens.

Many homemade pizzas!

Home food is real food! It's the way we eat most of the time. Cooking and eating this way doesn't mean that we never have takeaway or that I've never resorted to opening a packet of very convenient biscuits. Of course we do and I have! These are rarities though and not our normal, everyday way of preparing and eating food. 

Home cooking not only fills our tummies, it nourishes our bodies and our hearts. Beginning with the breakfasts that provide sustained fuel for the day ahead through to the homemade meals around our table at night, that bring us together and over which we talk and laugh, I know what's in this food. I know what ingredients I've used and how it's been cooked. I know those lunches made with leftovers prevent waste and save us money. While there's more washing up involved (Let's be realistic!), I also know there's a lot less food packaging and plastic too. I know that the birthday cakes I make my boy and the cheesecakes I make my husband are  baked with all of my love. I know the meals we cook and contribute to share with friends are made with a fondness for those we hold dear. In so many ways, home food is good for our family, our bodies, our wallets and our planet. 

Chocolate pudding to share.

(Imagine generous scoops with dollops of cream!)

Now, back to that big bowl in which I mixed this chocolate pudding. I absolutely did lick that bowl! I was home all by myself so there was no-one to see me really...except Sir Steve dog who knows that chocolate is no good for dogs:D

Have a lovely weekend. What will you be eating at your place?

Meg

Poppies for Rememberance

At a little stall, selling handmade poppy flowers for ANZAC Day, I bought this little brooch. I think it is simple and beautiful. 

A little handmade poppy brooch.

Red poppies have become a symbol of remembrance. Along with sprigs of rosemary, they are worn as poignant reminders of the sacrifices made for peace; a peace that we are so fortunate to enjoy here in Australia when there is so much conflict and suffering in other parts of our world. I think it is important that we don't forget how lucky that makes us.  

Thousands upon thousands of red poppies, each one knitted or crocheted or stitched by hand, have been made and "planted"  in very special tributes. The 5000 Poppies project, featured on Gardening Australia (my favourite television program) this past week, began as a personal tribute that has now grown and inspired en masse installations which are just extraordinarily beautiful. 

While no more handmade poppies are needed now for these inspiring installations, you could still make yourself a little red poppy of your own with some red yarn or red felt. Here are some pattern links:

four petal poppy knitting pattern  from Hippystitch blog

knitted poppy 2 from Libby Summers blog

Jen's very simple poppy pattern (crochet) from pattern list on 5000 Poppies blog

felt poppy brooch from Pip over at Rest is not Idleness blog

I will be wearing the little handmade poppy brooch I bought today for it's ANZAC Day here in Australia. A day to offer up a quiet thanks for peace. 

Meg

Honey & Ginger Anzac biscuits

Sweet and oat-y and thought to be a welcome inclusion in care packages sent to loved ones fighting in a long-ago war so far from home, Anzac biscuits are an Australian tradition that take their name from those first brave ANZAC soldiers who landed on a far away beach at Gallipoli in Turkey, on April 25th, 1915. On that April date each year, our nation solemnly remembers those long-ago soldiers and all those who have come after them. 

Those original Anzac biscuits had a long way to travel to reach loved ones on faraway shores. While traditionally made with rolled oats and golden syrup, without eggs and with lots of sugar, there are many twists now on the original recipe that began appearing in recipe books from the 1920s.  Traditional or with a twist? Chewy or crunchy? However you like them best, they are a biscuit with ties to our nation's history.

ANZAC biscuits with a ginger twist!

I discovered this version, for Nourishing Anzac Biscuits, over at Georgia Harding's blog,  Well Nourished, while looking for a healthier version that had far less refined sugar. In my much-loved, old and splattered copy of the Day-to-Day Cookery Book by I.M. Downes, the Anzac Biscuit recipe calls for a whopping 3/4cup of sugar. While Georgia's recipe incorporates ground, mixed seeds, I have tweaked the recipe to make these biscuits without them. Here's how I made them:

Honey & Ginger Anzac Biscuits

100g butter

60g raw honey

1 teaspoon bicarb soda

1/2cup wholemeal spelt flour

1 cup rolled oats

1/2cup dessicated coconut

1/4cup of coconut or brown sugar (optional)

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon ginger powder

1.  Preheat oven to 170C.

2.  In large bowl, combine all dry ingredients, except bicarb soda. 

3.  Melt butter with honey in a small saucepan over a medium heat. Remove from heat as 

     soon as butter has melted.

4.  Add bicarb soda and stir in very gently as mixture becomes frothy.

5.  Pour frothy butter mixture into dry ingredients and mix well. 

6.  Roll tablespoons of mixture into balls with wet hands (as mixture is somewhat sticky)

      and place on lined baking trays. *Leave room between each biscuit to spread as it bakes.*

      Flatten each biscuit ball slightly with a fork.

7.  Bake until golden. Remove from oven and allow to cool considerably on trays before 

     transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling.

8.  Store in an air-tight container. 

Try not to munch on too many of these before Anzac Day on April 25th otherwise you'll find yourself up early baking an extra batch!

Meg