Gluten Free Sour Dough.

Last week I experimented a lot with converting my sour dough starter to gluten free flour.  I know a lot of you are on gluten free diets and even if not you are likely to know someone who is.   Let me tell you... gluten free baking is a very welcome gift to anyone not eating wheat!

I was very doubtful that this would work!  But it does!
My original starter came as a dried starter from Nanna Chel.   This is aa regular starter from wheat flour.   You can read how to start a dry starter and make your first bread here on my post Getting starter with Sour dough.   This covers how to build up, feed and grow your starter.
I have never made a starter from scratch so I can't help there but it should also be possible to start one in GF flour.   I always feared a science experiment gone wrong though so having a good starter given to me was easier!

To get a GF starter I took a little bit of what I had, I used less than a quarter of a cup and fed it gluten free flour.  At first it was really small so I gave it a quarter of a cup of flour and a quarter cup of water and stirred it in.  I did this twice a day for two days.  I soon saw tiny bubbles.  As it grew I fed it a bit more and on the third day it started to get quite bubbly and healthy looking.  Just like old times!   By day four I had quite a lot and it was really bubbly and puffy.  When I stirred it the bubbles were crazy!  It was just like regular starter, bubbly, puffy, stretchy... smells a bit sour and yeast like.

On day five I thought ok I have enough to make bread.   Now this bread is still going to contain a tiny amount of gluten from the little bit I started out with... by now it is a tiny percent.  For a celiac I would still not consider this safe but for someone intolerant we are getting pretty good by now.  This is your call.... over time you are going to have a tinier and tinier percentage of gluten in there,  at this point I have kept using it and feeding it so I am now feeding it is safe to call mine gluten free.

The first tries I learned a few things.  I found the bread will rise well.  But normally you would let your dough rise then knead it again and then put it into your pans to rise before baking your bread.  This failed.  It didn't rise that second time.  I decided, fine, from now on I will let it rise in the pans then bake and this worked.  So ONE rise only worked for me.

I used what I had learned baking so much sour dough.  Yeast loves gluten.  And its not getting any of that.... but yeast also loves WARMTH, HUMIDITY,  and PROTEIN.  So to my original bread mix I added all these things.   For the protein I added a desert spoon (or three heaps teaspoons) of powdered milk and one egg.  I also decided to use all the rising power I could muster ad used a teaspoon of baking powder and I used gluten free SR flour mix.  All these things somehow gave me decent airy bread!

So  this is my basic bread recipe....
Take two or three cups of good bubbly starter. Remember to have put some aside for future batches and feed that too.
Make your sponge.   A sponge is when you feed up your starter with a big feed to get it super bubbly!
You must have a bubbly starter then a good bubbly sponge.  No bubbles or low bubbles will not succeed.

You add a full cup of your gluten free flour and a full cup of water to your starter and give it a big stir.
I left mine an hour as it was super bubbly and happy.
When you are happy with the bubbles add your basic bread mix.
I added a pinch of salt,
a big blob of olive oil,
1 egg,
1 spoon of honey,
1 big spoon of powdered milk,
3 cups of gluten free SR flour.
1 teaspoon baking powder.
I set in my mix master to knead.
You will always have varying amounts of starter so add a bit more flour if you need to. You are looking for a good dough not too wet. Think play doh!

Line two loaf pans.  (or one really big one) Put your dough in and put it somewhere slightly warm to rise.  It should at least double in size.
Then bake as you would normal bread,  mine were about 25 minutes.

That is it!   Obviously you can use your own favourite bread recipe.  I would just suggest the egg, powdered milk and baking powder as additions as you are tying to compensate for lack of gluten!

It smelled like bread, sliced beautifully and tastes like bread.  Weirdly it is super white which is the give away.  But as far as I have tasted this is good gf bread.
And the exciting bit to me is I can use this mix to make Naan bread, flat breads, pizza bases.... all so exciting to have!

I also think this will work to make scrolls which are great for work and school lunches.
If you are cooking both regular and gf then just have two starters running and make up a gf batch of everything.   Then no one is missing out.
Given the huge prices of gluten free cooking in the stores this could be a massive saving.

I did also make GF Raisin Bread.
To my sponge I added 2 tablespoons of milk powder,  1 and a half teaspoons of cinnamon,  3 tablespoons of raw sugar, 1 egg, 2 tablespoons of soft butter,  1 cup each of raisins, chopped apricot and sultanas (you could use 3 cups of any dried fruits you like) and 3 cups SR GF flour, one teaspoon baking powder.
I mixed it up adding the dried fruit last.  Form into two loaf tins, let rise until doubled and bake.
This also worked and sliced so nicely ready for toasting.   I guess you could also make this up as buns. Or scrolls... then ice.

Meanwhile I have fed and grown the starter I retained.  Now it is asleep in the fridge.
I hope this gives you the confidence to take some starter and just feed it Gluten Free flour.  It works!  I have used Aldi GF flour.  As far as I can see GF flours are usually a mix of flours such as rice flour.
The softness and puffiness of a yeast dough lends itself to so many things and is just different to cake like mixes.   The stretchiness, bread smell and bubbles give you that bread texture and crust too.

I think you have to experiment.   I would say use any recipes you have loved and just factor in some substitutes of things you know yeast likes.... some protein,  some warmth...  and in spite of no gluten it still has food.  At the end of the day you are dealing with a living thing.  We all live in different climates and temperature and humidity play a part.  Also knowing how dough should feel etc. is something you have to try.  So be prepared to experiment a little bit.   The internet is full of recipes and help.  Look up a website called Cultures for Health.  They have a series of free books to download and one of these is about Gluten Free Sourdough bread making.   Once you have a sour dough starter you can make anything and never have to buy yeast again!  You have your own yeast farm!   I have other sour dough recipes and information if you look to the index and follow Sour Dough.

I hope this helps someone and helps the budget.  Over the next weeks I will post how I went with Naan Bread and pizza etc.

This week I have the cleaning bug.   Meals are easy as I am using the pesto I made and some of my spaghetti sauce I froze.   I hope your week is going well! xxx

Pantries and Preparedness. Gluten free, Sour dough, tips.

Over the last week I have had some serious luck with finding all kinds of new tips.  Many of them are thanks to you all!
Firstly, thank you to Kallie who emailed me about a website called Cultures for Health.
They have endless sour dough recipes but also recipes, instructional videos and tips for things like fermented veggies,  yoghurt, cheese making, essential oils and more.  AND they have free ebooks including the most excellent Gluten Free Sour Dough bread making which I know several readers would love.
There is also a regular sour dough e book that I am enjoying and it has things like what to do with bread failures, how to make things like sour dough pie crust, pancakes and so much more. It is fantastic!
Just go to "free ebook library access" and you put in your email.  I have downloaded these e books and they are amazing.
I have gone from "what will I try to make next?" to a list of new things I really want to make and can't wait.  The starter is on the bench warming up as we speak!

Kallie's Marmite Sour Dough Scrolls.

Kallie also sent me this recipe Morning Glory Muffins which looks fantastic. This is a regular recipe but could be adapted to Gluten Free I think.

Cookie has also been so helpful with gluten free tips. Because I know that dietary restrictions can really mess with the budget I really hope these tips help some of you.
Over to Cookie:

Thankfully the internet is loaded with information and recipes.  I'm sending the link I've used as there's
just so much information it's easier to do that.  For the flour, I
found one on thewhoot.com. I like it because it's easy and doesn't
require a lot of exotic ingredients.  I also have used one from
theminimalistbaker.com/diy-gluten-free-flour-blend.  Lots of input
there and many questions asked and answered by her fans.  The next one
is americastestkitchen.com/recipe/7854-americas-test-kitchen-all-purpose-gluten-free-flour-blend.
Each and every one of these works very well.  I am blessed to have a
high speed blender and can grind my own flours with rice that I have
on hand so I don't need to purchase much.  Potato starch or cornstarch
is inexpensive as is tapioca flour that's needed.

One thing I found to cut the outrageous cost of this way of life is to
MOO. (Make Our Own) We don't buy any preprepared items ever.  

As for almond flour, this is very expensive here to buy.  The
cheapest I found it for was at Costco for $14 for 3 pounds.  On Amazon
it's $48 for $5 pounds.  The flour can be made in either the food
processor or  a blender but you must be extremely careful with the
time and speed as you could wind up with almond butter, which isn't a
bad thing, but not the goal.   I pour boiling water on the almonds to
remove the skins, but it's not necessary if you don't mind a darker
flour.   If you do the boiling water and remove skins then let these dry before the next step. 
Then I carefully grind it up in the blender.  Done.  For the
coconut flour, it can either be done by carefully grinding unsweetened
coconut flakes or by saving the residue and drying it when making
coconut milk.

As for the milks, I decided to MOO because there were so many
chemicals in the ones in the stores. Soak 1 c.up of almonds in 2 cups
for several hours or overnight.  Drain and put the soaked almonds in
the blender with 3 to 4 cups of fresh water and blend for about 4
minutes on high.  Strain through cheese cloth. It will keep in the
refrigerator for 3 days.Sweetner and vanilla can be added to it but
it's optional. It can be frozen, which is what I usually do. The
residue can be dried in the oven and used for baking.  I do the same
with unsweetened coconut flakes except they don't need the soaking
time.  I use one cup of boiling water in the blender then another cup of cold water 
is added after the first amount it blended. Of course the coconut must be gluten free.
  I also make other non-dairy milks this way using flax seeds or hemp seeds.

The quick and dirty way to make a cup of almond milk is to take a 2
teaspoons to a tablespoon of smooth almond butter and put it in the
blender and blend until smooth and strain.  Again, sweetener and
vanilla can be added but it's optional.
I even found a recipe similar to sunshine cake that completely uses
almond flour, two whole oranges and some eggs and honey.  It's
incredibly delicious.

Honestly, this is not as labor intense as it might look to some. I
would rather have the bags of rice, nuts and coconut in the freezer to
be made up as I need them than have bags and cartons on the shelf that
go out of date and become rancid.  This way my pantry is prepared.  By
keeping these supplies in the freezer I can make up whatever I want as
needed and there's no waste of not using something up.


Since almond milk and flour are expensive I hope these tips help someone a lot!

Cookie then added this recipe which she uses for sandwiches.

Flaxseed Bread

Preheat oven to 350F

Put oiled parchment paper on a 10x15 baking pan.

2 cups of flaxmeal

1 TBSP baking powder

1 tsp salt

1 to 2 tsp sugar

5 eggs beaten

1/2 cup water

1/3 oil

Mix dry ingredients together. Add wet ingredients and beat well but do not over beat. Let sit for about 2 minutes to thicken. Pour batter and spread into a rectangle in prepared pan leaving about an inch or two from edge. Bake 24-28 minutes. Makes 12 servings. 

I added some garlic and onion powder to the recipe.

Thanks so much Cookie for all your tips. Making flour and milks are really good things to know. 

I like King Arthur Flour for recipes, ideas and they also have a Gluten free section. Some of their recipes call for sour dough plus dry yeast, which I ignore. I have never needed to add yeast to sour dough.  Otherwise their site is excellent.

Finally, Gluten Free on a Shoestring blog has a recipe index of just about anything. For some reason my link won't work but it will be easy to find.

Given the price of specialty Gluten Free products and the number of people needing or wanting them some of these recipes and tips could make wonderful gifts.  A basket of gluten free cooking goodies or a box of Gluten Free cookies could be such a hit!

I notice that Aldi have quite a range of gluten free things from flours to snacks.  By contrast once I saw 6 Gluten free biscuits for $18 in a deli near us and they were tiny!

If you have gluten free recipes, tips and ideas please share them!
We all have to manage food budgets and special dietary needs just add to the challenge so I am hoping you find the ebooks helpful and that combined we can come up with some big money savers! xxx

Feather your Nest Friday, 9 June, 2017.

It was a really big week!  The best part was we headed down to the farm for the weekend to celebrate Dad's 80th Birthday.  It was a lovely weekend! The whole family gathered and we had a big birthday dinner on Saturday night.
Years ago Dad nearly died before he turned 60 and I remember that birthday so well. And here we are twenty years later.  When he turned 60 he was given five years to live by the way!  

Some of the best fun was seeing Harper with the farm animals. She had cows lambs, ducks, chooks, puppies and others to pat!

Harper cautiously looking at puppies! 

It was so nice I could talk about it for a week! 

Dad with Scarlett.

On the way down to the farm we stopped at an op shop and on the way home another one.  Andy got a beautiful fine pure wool grey knitted vest which he just loves (for $2.50) and a heap of books.  I found beads,  a top, and pumpkins that just came in from a local farm. And lemons!

At the farm I also picked Bay Leaves and Mum sent us home with venison as well.

Chloe lives nearby and we drove over to her house for an afternoon. We arrived to fresh baked biscuits and cups of tea.

Each day was sunny and beautiful.  We saw hundreds of cockatoos, water birds, Blue Wrens and Rosellas... and so many more.

It was like a little holiday and I took heaps of photos around the farm. 

Mum keeps interesting things at her front door....

I had my eye on that bird nest!

And there are various spots with wood ready for the fire place.  There is always a big fire going.

A while back I posted about the farm and showed a bit about the kitchen and Dad's old stove and things which is here.

Most of Mum's garden is native flowers.  There was a gum tree just covered in pink!

During the week we had good news and bad news.  The good news is that it looks like insurance will cover new floors in the kitchen and lounge/dining area. The insurance floor guy came on Tuesday and said "yep, that's stuffed"  confirming our suspicions!  There is someone else coming yet and hopefully they can go ahead and get this done.

The bad news was the job that promised Andy 30 hours a week hasn't delivered.  They had him at conferences and appointments but haven't delivered work.  It's been weeks. We can't afford to wait around really.  Luckily he has had private work to keep him going so far.  But it is nerve wracking.   With this and floors that look HORRIBLE I thought of "do the next thing" and just kept doing what needed doing.  Ages ago I wrote about this quote that I learned from Elizabeth Elliot.  It has helped me so much so many times.  Do the next thing.

During the week some of my money saving efforts included making two big pots of Chicken Soup. First I made the stock then I added everything else.  I think I made almost 15 litres of soup!  One lot went to Lucy's house as they have had colds.  Lots was frozen for days when Chicken soup is needed.

I made two trays of ham and cheese scrolls.  This was meant to go with the soup and provide lunches. 

The scroll recipe is just the same as my bread recipe, rolled out and filled.  All the Sour Dough recipes can be found via the index on my side bar.

As far as I can see anything you might put on a pizza is good in scrolls! 

Then I had another go at making Raisin Bread.  This time I added a lot more fruit.  Success! It is beautiful. I think there might be a bit of difference between Australian Raisin Bread/toast and the US.  

My recipe ended up being my couple of cups of starter made into a sponge with a cup of water and a cup of flour. Once that was bubbling like mad I added:

2 tablespoons milk powder,

1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon, 

3 tablespoons of raw sugar,

1 and a half tablespoons soft butter, 

1 cup raisins,

1 cup chopped apricot, 

1 cup sultanas,

3 cups bread flour (or substitute)  plus extra.

I kneaded everything but added the fruit near the end (in the mixer) and then the mix was too sticky so I gradually added more flour until it was a nice soft dough that held together.

This made two loaves.  After the first rise I divided it in two, placed in my pans and let rise a couple of hours in a pre warmed oven that I turned off. I was really cold here!  They were beautiful!  I baked in pre heated oven for 20 mins.

They are all sliced up now and most is frozen.  At a cafe last week I saw this for $4.50 per slice!  It is less than that to make a whole loaf!  It is so yummy toasted.  Now I have it to our taste it will be a regular.  Alter the fruit, sweetness, spices to your own taste.

I trimmed my own hair,

Froze a bag full of celery tops,

Pruned all the roses out the front of the house,

Mended a pair of my jeans,

And I took advantage of a half price sale on some vitamins we buy.  To my surprise with this I was given a whole bag of free stuff!

The best things for me were a moisturiser and a good mascara, also some vitamins. There are a few things to give the girls and one item to go into the present cupboard. 

So that is my week!  I need to have a quiet moment to work out my Vicky Challenge total.  It should be good.  

Lucy has started a blog!  It will suit the young Mum's with little ones.  You can see some of my ways have rubbed off on her 😊  It is here The Pitter Patter of Tiny Feet.  All encouragement is welcome! She is right where I remember being so well with two little girls just like me! 

How did you build up your nest this week?  I hope there were some ways to get ahead, save and feather your nest generally! 

Have a lovely weekend! xxx

Pantries and Preparedness. Sour dough starter.

Nanna Chel got me started with sour dough. I was really hesitant at first.  But now I think it is so easy and such a huge asset.  Once you are up and running you just eliminated ever having to buy yeast again.  I find I have much more success now... I never was very good on baking with yeast.  Now I make bread, rolls, focaccia, scrolls, buns, Naan bread pizza bases and each week I seem to learn something else.  If you have hungry tummies in your family and lunch boxes to fill this is for you!  The savings are immense.

Sticky Buns.

Cheese and Bacon Scrolls.

This weekend I woke my starter up and made up a tray of Vegemite scrolls. For the US ladies think of making bacon and cheese scrolls, pizza flavoured schools, cheese and onion or whatever combinations your family might like.
I saw that these vegemite scrolls were $4 each in the local bakery.  So that is $48 for twelve.  I think they are only costing me a few dollars to make and therefore I am saving over $40 with just this one thing.  Added to that the fact that I send Andy's lunches to work and I know that this saves so much per week!  Yeast products all seem to freeze very well and then re heat as if they have just come out of the oven which is another very handy bonus.

Cheese and Vegemite Scrolls.

I often say that each time we learn a new skill we increase our preparedness.  I love something that will save money and benefit all round. This really seems to be one of those things.  So here is a little tutorial on how to get started.

First of all I know nothing at all about making starter from scratch. My starter came in a dry form from Nanna Chel.  I have, in turn, dried some of mine and sent it on to some of you and have seen some very big successes!

Dried starter. It doesnt look like much! 

I am no expert at this and it seems to me it is a bit art and a bit science. So I don't think there is a right and wrong way.  This is just how I have learned to do it and it works for me.

First some basics you need to know.  I avoided using metal bowls and spoons as I heard not to use them...  I have heard heavily chlorinated water is not so good.  You use bread flour (or bakers flour) as this is higher protein and the starter apparently loves protein.

So lets assume you have some dry starter.  You take that and add it to a third or a cup of water and a third of a cup of bread flour. Stir.  Let it sit on the bench somewhere.  In about eight hours feed it the same quantities again and stir. Keep it covered so dust won't get in but so that it can breathe.  I use a paper towel or a cloth. Jane made me some beautiful cloth covers, they look like shower caps and work perfectly.
Repeat this process. Eventually you notice a couple of little bubbles. This is when it has woken up!  Keep feeding!  Sooner or later you will get lots of bubbles!  Now you have an active starter!
You have to give it a name.  That's a rule apparently!

Happy starter! 

I would keep feeding your starter. One you have larger quantities you can be adding more flour and water at a time... i.e. half a cup of flour and half a cup of water. The water to flour ratio will always be the same.

If starter is out of the fridge you will need to feed it a couple of times a day. If you want to put it to sleep you put it in the fridge. It needs to be covered but be able to breather. I cover with glad wrap and poke a hole in that.  In the fridge it will sleep for a week. But once a week to you need to get it out and let it wake up to be fed and nurtured!   It will wake up when it is out and comes back to room temperature. Then you need to feed it!   It is kind of like having a pet.

This all sounds mysterious and ridiculous until you do it. You soon get the idea as it tells you what it needs.

When it is mildly bubbly think of it as happy.

When it is REALLY bubbly (you can get to the stage you have bubbles large and small and kind of on top of each other) think of your starter as hungry!  

Hungry starter! This is also how your sponge should look.

Once you have really active starter that gets bubbly quickly after feeding your re ready to get cooking.
Overall, bubbly like above is what you want to get your starter to.  Once you have this you really are set. 

I like to have at least a cup and preferable a cup and a half or so of starter to start a recipe.  You need enough that you are also going to reserve some to keep going for the future. 
I use two bowls.  I put about half a cup of starter into one bowl and feed that.  This will be kept. Set it aside. 
The rest (which is at least a cup full) you make a sponge. The sponge is the fist stage of baking.  To make your sponge feed it a whole cup of flour and a whole cup of water and stir.  Let it sit and become very bubbly.  Hungry bubbly!  
I will normally take my starter out of the fridge the night before I want to cook.  I will give it a feed once or twice. 
The next morning it will be good and bubbly!  So I will make my sponge when I get up in the morning.
After a couple of hours I will make my dough.
The recipe I use is based on a recipe from a blog I followed called Gully Grove.  
To your sponge add a dash of salt. I don't like salt so I use a pinch.  A small spoon of honey.  A few globs of olive oil.  Then about three cups of bread flour.  Mix and knead or put this in your mixer.
As your amount of starter will vary so will the flour. I retain a bit of flour and add it in as I can see if the dough is to wet or too dry.  You soon get to know what dough should feel like.  It is smooth and stretchy.  
This is all very forgiving. If you think it's too dry add a little water, if it's too wet add a little flour. 

When you are happy with your dough sit is somewhere warmish and cover it. Let it more or less double in size.  Usually I let it sit for most of the day in my lounge room window.  If the weather is cold I would warm the dish first, sit it on a hot pack or some other method to keep it a little bit warm. 
Then you want to shape your dough.  Yesterday I rolled it out to make scrolls. 

 I covered it in vegemite and sprinkled it with cheese to make scrolls.  You can make a load of bread, a flat bread, rolls, a free from loaf... whatever you want really.  Whatever you are making form it as you want then let it all rise again.  As yeast loves warmth I try to get warmth into my baking tins and dishes.  While Im forming my dough I might have my dish warming in the oven, or I might fill it with hot water and let it sit.  Then I will dry it and pop in my dough and wrap it up to keep the warmth in.  You could sit it in the car or in a window.   Once again you sigh will double.  Then you are ready to cook!  

My vegemite scrolls after rising. The pan went from sparse to full! 

As a loaf of bread it is going to take about 20 mins to half an hour to cook in a fairly hot oven.  If it looks cooked and sounds hollow it is probably good. If in doubt a few more minutes won't hurt. I always pre heat the oven.  Keep an eye on things, you will soon learn your cooking times. 

The starter I retained is still on the bench.  I will feed it and sometimes keep it out and feed it up to increase the volume. Then I put it in the fridge until I want to make something else.  Overall I will try to always feed it and end up with at least a couple of cups of  so I can always make something and have enough to retain some.  So you have an endless cycle!  Remember to get your starter out of the fridge at least once a week!
Some people throw starter out as they feed theirs and do not want to make anything. I don't know why, I don't, I am glad to have more!  If I end up with heaps I will just make something! 

In my index I have a sourdough section. So far I have posted the recipes and methods to scrolls, sticky buns, bread and Naan bread.  They have mostly been based on the recipe I just explained. 
You can find recipes for sour dough easily. I don't bother I just use any yeast recipe and use my sour dough instead. You will just need to allow for the flour and moisture in your starter... usually it will mean I add a bit more flour to the recipe or a bit less liquid. It is easy to know what a dough should feel like.... just go ahead and use any recipe and add what you need to get your dough lovely and smooth. So far everything has worked so well.  Always remember to make your sponge first then make your recipe! 

My next recipe I want to make is Fruit loaf or fruit buns.  As I try new things I will just keep adding them to the Sourdough section.
I really thought this was all very complicated until I tried it and saw the amazing results.  The savings are huge.  I look at the prices in the stores and see wholegrain loaves for $8!  ONE bun is $4 and you can make a dozen for that!  I can make 12 Naan breads for less than the price of a packet of two.  Actually it is the fancy breads like focaccia, turkish,  wholegrain rolls etc that you save so much as they are so cheap to make but the shops charge so much for them.

If you are a participating Bluebird and would like some starter I will be glad to send you some and glad to send it anywhere in the world!  If I don't get too many requests I will offer again in a couple of weeks to others who do not comment.   I hope that sounds fair.  I am grateful for all my readers but Bluebirds has become a little community of help and support due to the ladies that comment, add tips, offer prayers and encouragement and answer questions.  I am so grateful for everyone who does that.
I appreciate it more than you could know! Thank you!

email me at brinkzi21@hotmail.com

My last week of working on my preparedness has been interesting!  I am looking at my new bathroom space and shelves as a big help. All my supplies of shampoo, soaps etc will be organised and we will also have a cabinet for medications and over the counter type stuff.   This will be a big improvement.  All my towels will also be in the bathroom and free up my linen cupboard so I will be able to re organise that as well.  It is all progress I guess!  Progress is good!

Have a very good new week!  xxx

Feather your Nest Friday, 12 May, 2017.

A week can make a lot of difference! Andy is at his new job and a new normal is shaping up.  I had many more savings and achieved much more this week.

I saved money and got ahead (caught up) in a few ways:

I altered some more scarves. Nanna Chel asked me about this. I just find most way too big and they drown me!  I have cut them in half lengthwise, sewn them together in a loop and hemmed the raw edge. Then I fold them in half with two twists in the middle. (like a figure eight with two twists) Then I wear them!

Lately I have made adjustments to a lot of clothes and accessories and it has expanded my wardrobe heaps for free.   

This week I tried something else with my sour dough starter.  We have curries and butter chicken often in winter and we love Naan bread. It is quite expensive in Woolies as it is sold in packs of two for over $4.   I read up on how it is made and noticed the recipe is pretty much just bread with yoghurt in it.  So I went ahead and made my sour dough sponge, then my usual bread recipe (which I use for bread, scrolls, pizza etc) and I added three heaps tablespoons of yoghurt.  I kneaded this and it became very smooth and silky... it took some extra flour.  

You let it rise as usual. Then you roll out portions very flat and fry them in a little olive oil in the frypan. Like a pancake! They puff up and there you have Naan bread! 

It was delicious! Also hot from the frypan it was so good!  I had two lots of dough going and divided each lot into 12.  So I had 24 Naan breads.  When I looked up the price for my Vicky Challenge I saw this just saved me $50.   I froze it in bags of two. 

I will never buy it again. It is literally child's play to make.  Why didn't I think of this before?  In a way the sour dough starter has saved me money in new ways every week since I've had it.

I am working on a tutorial for anyone interested in sour dough.  It is very handy as you never have to buy yeast again, you always have your own fresh yeast growing!

I made Butter Chicken and raita from mint in the garden.

My soup of the week was broccoli. I use chicken stock as my base. This was because broccoli was on the best special.

This week I finally printed a lot of photos, especially of Harper and Scarlett. I do not trust digital ways to save photos.  Did you know Memory sticks have a life of about five years for photos? After that they deteriorate. Don't get me started on "the cloud" etc!   

I then wanted some nice frames.  I looked in a shop that had giftware and so on.  I did find something nice but I needed quite a few so shopped around.  The one I liked was $30.  

Then I headed off to the cheap shop.  I found some I love!  Eight frames came in at $24!  What a saving that was!  

Aldi had towels in special buys. I got four bath sheets to go in our new bathroom for under $40.  This is well under half price I expected to pay.

I made a big slab of chocolate cake which became lunches and the fishing day picnic.

I packed Andy's lunch from Wednesday to today, plus coffee.  He took a pack to tea bags and things to work as they have a kettle and that is all.  Everyone there sends out for lunch. I even sent a cup, spoon, tea towel... everything!  I will get him to find out what everyone pays for lunch. At the last place it was over $20 a day. Hello! That's $100 a week on lunches! 

I wrote up my Vicky challenge and it came to a much healthier $544. 

I got ahead/caught up with all the Naan bread in the freezer and some portions of soup as well. 

We made a heap of progress on the bathroom.  I can't wait to show before and after photos.  Before was bad. During has been a shocker!  After is looking good!  We have a floor going in next week and Saturday week the bath and everything should go back in.  

How was your week?  I hope you found ways to build up your nest and get ahead.  Taking opportunities as they come, even small ones, really adds up. 

If you are doing the Vicky challenge how much did you save by doing things yourself? 

Have a lovely weekend! xxx

Pantries and Preparedness. From learning one skill you get so much more! And the recipe for Sticky Buns.

Last week Cookie shared with us her easy one hour bread and we talked about being able to make basics from scratch and what an advantage this is... in both money savings and also being up to make meals from very simple ingredients.  Cookie's recipe can be found in last weeks post.

I am going to attempt a basic tutorial in sour dough another day.  It is thanks to Nanna Chel that I got started as she sent me some starter and instructions. She sent me to a blog called Gully Grove which helped me a lot as I found many instructions confusing but that blog made it much simpler!   Anyway, I am working on a tutorial to make it really easy for anyone interested.

Whether you are making bread with purchased yeast or sour dough starter it is like a lot of skills... it has many, many spin offs. You do not just get bread you get rolls, pizza bases, Calzones, focaccia and  fancy breads,  buns,  scrolls and sticky buns! (and many other things I haven't even tried yet.)

You can feed your family, fill lunch boxes, use for entertaining and gifts.

Then you have left overs. You get Bread and Butter pudding,  bread cases,  croutons, bread crumbs (for toppings, crumbed chops, meatloaf and more) and it goes on and on!  I wrote a post here about using up left over bread.  I make Bread and Butter pudding and it looks like a cake. It cuts like a cake and it is beautiful.  You can also make individual ones in a muffin tray.  This is also a great way to use up jam.

If you have a whole bunch of people to feed and they are always hungry all of this can really help! 

Anyway here is my Sticky Bun recipe. I adapted it from a very old recipe to my sour dough. I find really you can make any recipe calling for yeast. To do it I start with a cup or two of starter, make my sponge and go right ahead and use that instead of purchased yeast. Somewhere I will need to use less liquid than the recipe says or more flour (or both) to get the dough consistency but so far this has worked out with everything. 

For Sticky Buns (this makes 18)

Use about two cups of active sour dough starter and make your sponge with one cup of flour and one cup of water. Let it sit and become good and bubbly. I do this the night before. 

In the morning:

Heat up a cup of milk and add a large tablespoon of butter and a cup of sugar. Stir until sugar is dissolved. Let it cool down to warm.

I put my sour dough sponge in the mixer, add this melted mix, add 2 eggs and 4 cups flour.  (I used bread flour for everything)

Mix and keep adding flour until you have a nice soft dough, not dry but not wet! (I think I used about five cups overall)  Knead until lovely and smooth. I do this in my mixer with the dough hook.

Let this rise. I set it aside until mid afternoon. 

I use my largest baking dish and another smaller one. Line really well and up the sides with baking paper. 

Make a caramel sauce in a saucepan of 2 large tablespoons of butter, 2 cups of dark brown sugar, 1 cup of Golden Syrup.  (this is available in the Australian or British section in supermarkets overseas) 

Melt this all together and pour over your baking paper to cover the bottom of both tins.  You can make this anytime however I make it just before I fill the trays with my buns as this gives you warmth in your pans which will help the buns to rise. 

Sprinkle bits of pecans or walnuts over your toffee mix.

When your dough has risen to about double roll it out into a long section. 

Sprinkle this with 3 teaspoons of brown sugar and 3 teaspoons of cinnamon.  

Roll this like you would to make scrolls to form a giant long rolled up sausage.

Slice this into about 18 thick slices.  Then set each one onto your toffee base...

I got 12 in one tray and 6 in another. 

So it looks dismal at this point! Cover and let sit somewhere warm until at least double in size.  The warm toffee will help your pan be nice and warm. 

Once at least doubled you can bake them.  I used a medium oven for about 20 mins. Keep an eye on them. You want them to be golden but not get too dark...

Now for the good bits!  You want to let this cool down a bit as the toffee underneath is bubbly and would burn terribly if things went wrong. But you want it still nice and warm so it will tip out. 

Lay out a big baking tray or baking paper and tip the tray upside down so the whole thing comes out. 

Then carefully peel away the baking paper...

Underneath you will find oozy goozy sticky buns all golden and yum.

I served them warm at dinner when I had visitors....

They are really good! Later when they were cool I found microwaving them for 30 seconds made them like just out of the oven again.

I froze the whole tray of six and they freeze well.  

So that is it!  

Last week I worked on rotating some food items from our storage. I ordered a bike basket and seat cover for my bike.  I added large size batteries to my supplies.

Our power situation made international news and Elon Musk came out and said he can fix our problems.  This will be interesting!  I know he is a really smart guy and can only imagine him talking on the phone to our Premier and find this somehow hilarious.  However it would be amazing if good came from it! 

Did you add to your preparedness this week or learn a new skill that would be helpful?

Today is a public holiday for us. I am trying to get off to a good start! Have a wonderful week! xxx