The Great Mayonnaise Debacle.

I had squeezed the very last splurt of mayonnaise from the squeeze bottle and my menu plan for the next fortnight included two meals that used mayonnaise. It was time to buy more.

Inspired by the 'Real Food' challenge on Not Dabbling in Normal I decided that I would make my mayonnaise from scratch. It would be healthier without all the preservatives, it would have a more traditional feel to it and I would feel better for having made it myself.

Or at least that was the plan.

The following debacle unfolded on Facebook so enough talk from me. I let the disaster speak for itself.







The big lesson here is this:

Though adding extra ingredients to a failed cooking endeavor may work sometimes it is not always the best way to go. Lemon essence? Really!

Project Use-Up-The-Ham Part 1

This year my family had a large Christmas dinner with all of my Dad's side of the family there as well as all my brothers and sisters, their spouses and children. It ended up being close to 30 people... thank goodness it wasn't hosted at my tiny house!

This year the responsibility of buying the Christmas Ham fell to me, a task I didn't take lightly. Knowing the number of people due to come and the healthy appetite of the clan I bought a decent sized smoked ham leg for $60.

As is usual with Christmas dinners there was a lot of leftovers. My ham was returned to me with less than a quarter of it gone. Enter Project Use-Up-The-Ham!


PROJECT USE-UP-THE-HAM

Objective:
To use up the entire remainder of the Christmas ham in exciting and different ways (i.e. not ham sandwiches every day for a month).

Important Information:
Ham will keep for some time given it is stored correctly. One of the best ways to store ham is in a ham bag (a.k.a a calico bag) which has been soaked in a mixture of 1L of water and a cup of white vinegar. The vinegar acts as an antiseptic while the soaked bag stops the ham from drying out.

The ham bag needs to be re-soaked every few days.

Progress so far:

To date the ham has been used for a number of meals including:

• ham and salad rolls.
• homemade pizza with ham, capsicum, onion and tomato toppings.
  
• diced ham included in a bento box for lunch
• other, more exciting, options below.

Boxing Day Soup


Don't be fooled by the curious name. It is pretty much just a variation on pea and ham soup.

It uses:

• whatever mix of pulses and grains are in your pantry in the place of the split green peas. (I had split green peas, some red lentils and brown rice).
• whatever soup vegetables such as carrots, celery, leek, turnip, swede etc. you have available.
  
• Salt, pepper, a bay leaf and some dried herbs. (I used whole peppercorns, thyme and basil.) either vegetable or chicken stock.
• Smoked ham diced in the stead of the usual ham bone scraps.
  

I put all of these ingredients cold into the slow cooker and let it stink my house up for half a day. And there you have Boxing Day Soup.



Italian Omelette
(adjusted from a Family Circle Recipe- Pasta Cookbook)

Bad photo of excellent food. Italian Omelette went so quickly this is the only shot I got of it.

Again, this recipe has a deceiving name. This is nothing like a traditional omelette. It is closer to a frittata.

• 2 tab olive oil
• 1 onion finely chopped
• 125g ham diced finely
• 4 eggs
• 1/4 cup milk
• salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
• 2 cups cooked spiral (or other short) pasta.
• 1/4 cup grated parmesan
• 1/4 cup grated gruyere cheese
• 1 tab fresh basil chopped
• 1/4 cup cheddar cheese.
  

Heat half the oil in a frypan. Add onion and cook over low heat until soft.
Add the ham and cook over low heat for a few minutes. Transfer to a plate.

In a bowl, whisk eggs, milk, s&p together. Add the cooked pasta, parmesan and gruyere cheese, herbs and onion/ham mixture.
Return the omelette mixture to the same fry-pan, top with cheddar cheese and cook over low to medium heat until it has started to set. Put the fry-pan under a grill to set the top of the omelette.

The mix of the three cheeses really made this dish sing. The photo doesn't do it justice at all. Dan and I both went back for seconds and I ended up with no leftovers!



Honeyed Ham For Breakfast



Honeyed ham is, in one word, delicious.
Honeyed ham for breakfast is just plain decadent.

Cut off chunks of ham.
Heat either olive oil or butter in a saucepan.
Add the ham and a generous dollop or two of honey.
Fry the ham in the honey mixture until golden brown.

Best served with toast and egg with a cup of tea on the side. Oh yeah!



Ham and Vegie Fritters


When my mum heard of Project Use-Up-The-Ham she offered her suggestion of fritters. This is a family favorite to make use of leftover roast and I can't count the number of times I had fritters for dinner as a child.

• 1 egg
• 1 cup self-raising flour
• 1 cup milk
• 1 onion finely chopped
• pinch salt
• 125g ham diced finely
• 1/3 cup peas
• 1/3 cup corn kernals
• oil for frying.
  

In a bowl, beat the egg and milk. Stir in all other ingredients.
In a frypan, heat olive or vegetable oil over high heat. Once sufficiently heated, drop two to three tablespoons of the fritter mixture into the oil. Fry each side until golden.

It is imperative that these are served with an emoticon (smiley face etc.) of tomato sauce.


I failed at frying the first batch because I didn't have the temperature high enough or wait until the oil was ready before adding the batter to the frypan. My second batch was more successful. Remember that you are frying these.... they should be golden and crispy and not the consistency of pancakes (though they taste pretty good that way too!)



End report:
With a large amount of the ham now gone I am still looking for ways to use up the last of it.

Suggestions so far have been a ham-based carbonara and fried rice.

Does anyone have any other suggestions for completing Project Use-Up-The-Ham?

Impatience

I planted alpine strawberry seeds a LONG time ago. It didn't take too long for little seedlings to germinate. I cheered them on, all the while thinking of the delightful, juicy, plump strawberries I would pluck from them once they had grown.

But that's the problem - they've never grown more than a few millimeters tall.

Today, while partaking in the joy that is shopping at Plants Plus in my local area (hooray for supporting small business!) I noticed some strawberry plants begging to be taken home for just $3.95.

So I caved because I'm sick of waiting for this...

(Do you think I have a future in hand modeling?
Keep an eye out for these fingernails in the next dishwashing detergent commercial!)

to turn into this...


I am trying to work out where I've gone wrong with my seedlings. I know I planted them in the correct season according to the packet. They were planted in coir (shredded coconut fibres) with no other soil or additives so perhaps there is a severe lack of nutrients. It could be that they require sun and I've kept them too shaded or perhaps the strawberry plant is just a slow grower.

I may try to transplant the weeny seedlings into a better, more nutrient filled soil tomorrow to see if this helps them along at all.

Meet THE ENEMY

The ENEMY in my garden....

Is small and just the right shade of green to blend into leafy surroundings.
Has lots of legs all the better to jump away faster than the flash of a hand.
Eats all my basil and young-berry leaves. Also tomatoes... and Rockmelon. And carrot tops.
Is definitely hated by this gardener.
Possibly the devil in disguise.


I am trusting in the toads and spiders to do their work in an organic circle-of-life kind of way. I just wish they'd do it faster.

Where there is no sun...

We have seen a deluge over the last week, all on ground already saturated.

It has been terribly sad to see the disaster this has caused for other Queenslanders in places like Rockhampton, Emerald and now, closer to home in Toowoombah. My thoughts go out to all those who have been effected and this weekend I'll be gathering items I can spare from around our home to send to the flood appeals (blankets and the sort).

In my own small part of the world, the rains haven't caused more than a bit of misery and a large pile of laundry waiting for the return of sunny days.

But where there is no sun I still have sunflowers.

Sunflowers in the rain. I dashed out with camera primed to snap this shot.
It's the closest I've been able to appreciate my sunflowers as it's been raining since they bloomed.

Mulberry Ice Cream

Ice cream is exquisite. What a pity it isn't illegal. Voltaire


The mulberries plucked from the tree back in Spring were still sitting frozen, unused. Indecision about whether to make jam, cordial, a dessert syrup or some other delightful delicacy from my most treasured harvest had me at a standstill on using them at all.

On the 1 January 2011 I made my favourite choc-chip biscuit recipe which calls for a few tablespoons of condensed milk. That gave me an almost an entire can of condensed milk leftovers which I needed to use up.

A friend had made home-made ice cream for her New Years party using condensed milk so I hunted down a recipe (www.taste.com.au forums), girded my loins and went in for an adventure in ice cream making.



Mulberry Ice Cream

400ml condensed milk
300ml thickened cream
1 tsp vanilla essence
3 eggs separated
1kg mulberries, stalks removed.

Beat the condensed milk, essence and egg yolks for roughly 3 minutes, or until light and fluffy.
Beat the egg whites in a seperate bowl until firm peaks can be made.
Beat the thickened cream in another bowl until thick.
Puree the mulberries.

Condensed milk mixture, mulberry puree, egg whites and whipped cream.

Fold the egg whites, thickened cream and mulberry puree into the condensed milk mixture. If desired, beat with a hand mixer for a few more minutes before putting in a suitable container for freezing.


Notes

• handmade ice cream will be harder than machine made/store bought ice cream..... but just as tasty!
• makes just short of 2L of ice-cream.
  

The '3 Year Quilt' Coming Together

I am a sucker for a pretty craft project. Even more so when there are gorgeous colour combinations like pink, green and blue.

So when my boss (at the time) incited me to start a 'block of the month' quilt project at a craft fair 3 years ago I was keen. I even kept up with the block-per-month thing for the first two months.

The almost finished quilt on the line today (yes! blue skies!)

It was the embroidery that broke my progress. Each month had at least two blocks to embroider, some quite detailed. All that embroidery is what drew this project out from a 9 month project to a 3 year one.

The quilt design - Polka Dot Girls - by Bronwyn Hays of Red Brolly
I must admit I edited some of the embroidery blocks to suit my tastes.

However, at last there is an end in sight! Earlier this week I completed stitching the last embroidery panel and today sewed all the panels together. The sewing isn't wonderful - it's my first real attempt at patchwork and I learned a lot of things along the way - but it is complete and the colours and embroidery draw attention away from the mis-aligned seams.

Fuu inspects my work. The angle of her ears signals approval.

Next I have to put on the borders, buy batting and backing fabric then I (fool that I am) will be doing the quilting by hand with embroidery thread. If it has already taken me three years I might as well drag it out to three and a half and make it look exactly the way I want to!