Vanilla Plum Jam

Posted on February 12, 2015 by cityhippyfarmgirl

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Vanilla Plum Jam. It’s my all time favouritey-favourite kinda jam. It’s tarty, has vanilla tones and dollops particularly well onto, well anything that I match it with really.

Lucky for me I like it a lot as I’ve made batch after batch of these babies. It’s that time of year. Vanilla Plum Jam time.

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Have a read here if you are new to jam making or are a bit hit and miss with your jam making methods. It really is a wonderful skill to be able to preserve the season and have even just a little of that knowledge under your belt.

Go on, give it a whirl. Try your hand at jam making.

Kitchen Creations

Posted on February 5, 2015 by cityhippyfarmgirl

The last few months have seen a lot of these crackers being made. Dead easy to make, with only a handful of ingredients in them. My recipe is over on the forever wonderful Milkwood blog if you are interested. (Just quietly, you’ll never walk down the cracker aisle again…this is an excellent thing.)

Tomatoes in all shapes and sizes, forms and colours, (and just as they should be) are working their way on to my kitchen bench top. Some grown by me and some via my OOOOBY box.

Ahh, now what’s this beauty I hear you say? Which is pretty much what I said when I walked passed a particularly enticing window display that I hadn’t seen before. I quietly go to the chiropractor one evening with no expectations of purchasing anything besides ongoing good healthy (thank you chiropractic care) and come home with this divine little chocolate encased creature. I hadn’t seen apples done like this before…how on earth could I say no? (And yes, there was a crispy, crispy fresh apple under there.)

There has also been some Eton Mess experimenting done. This experimenting shall continue as much like the apple above, I was impressed, oh yes I was.

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How about you? What’s been happening in your kitchen lately? Have you seen apples like this before? Are you a fan of Eton Mess? And crackers- do you make your own? (ps. If you would like to give this recipe a go and are on instagram tag them #supermarketcrackerspffft I’d love to see them!)

Linking in with Ms Celia today and lots of other amazing kitchen goodies.

Banana Smoothie Ice Cream

Posted on January 29, 2015 by cityhippyfarmgirl

This isn’t rocket science here. It may not even be life changing…

but it might just be helpful!

What to do- Make your every day banana smoothie as you normally would (go on, add in an extra banana for good measure.) Now pop it in the freezer and leave it for a little. For ease of eating, don’t wait until it’s frozen through.

Guaranteed to make small people happy on hot summer days, and big people rather content.

To make this, I whack in…

4 bananas

1 tsp vanilla

some milk

Whizz it all up and into the freezer. Drizzle on some honey just before eating and spoon out as you would regular ice cream. Just the thing for cooling off on a hot day.

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Do you have any regular foods you tweak for extra hot days?

Happiness in eating local

Posted on January 11, 2015 by cityhippyfarmgirl

When meals are made up of bits and pieces like chocolate, pickles, thyme, plums and wine, you know life is treating you ok.

Last year I challenged myself to an Eat Local challenge throughout the year. While this year, I won’t be continuing with the same challenge, I will still be eating as much locally produced food as I can possibly get my hands on.

Summer holiday time is a great time for local and seasonal goodies. Wonderful things given as gifts, deliciousness made available because of the season, and sometimes just a matter of being in the right place at the right time.

These are a few of the things that have been gracing our bench tops lately.

Gifted Spencer Cocoa, (cocoa beans grown in Vanuatu and made in Mudgee, NSW)

Pickles bought at Moruya Markets, with cucumbers grown a couple of hundred metres down the road.

Thyme from my window sill.

Plums from an organic laden orchard I was lucky enough to visit.

A wonderful bottle of Elysium wine. Bought direct from the makers, this company uses Australian natives for their wine making.

So good, all of them.

I didn’t enter a super market for any of those goodies, and damn, that felt good. It makes me so incredibly happy to be eating a fair chunk of our food like this.

Have a look around you, see what locally produced food you can find, let me know and let’s spread the word even further. I’m always on the look out for more small and local producers, and they in turn are always on the look out for more consumer support for their products.

Happiness really just might be, in supporting and eating local.

5 recipes I’ll be making over the holiday period

Posted on December 14, 2014 by cityhippyfarmgirl

Selecting just five recipes for this post was actually harder than I thought. What to make, what to bake….and most importantly, what to eat??

Stollen, there will be definitely some of this. Stollen involves, dried fruit, marzipan and really….that is just a match made in heaven.

This ice cream, as it was a sure hit last summer, and I’m always up for easy crowd pleasing dishes.

Coconut Mango Icecream

In a blender, add two big bananas, one can of coconut milk, 1/3 cup of sugar and whizz it up. Pour it out into a dish and blend some fresh mango. Swirl that in too. Freeze it and either run a fork through every half an hour or so until you are ready to eat it or bring it out about 20 minutes before you want to eat it, running a fork through it, (the banana content should stop it freezing completely solid.)

I think I will have a play with some St Lucia saffron buns. I’ve been making quite a few Cinnamon Buns as they are easy, freezable and everyone enjoys them, but I would like to branch out a little and see how the saffron buns turn out.

This family favourite will probably get a look in….as really, I’d be crazy not to.

And lastly, sourdough doughnuts. I’ve been planning, and planning this one, working out my best point of attack. I’m going in people, and will not rest until they are sitting plump on the table, surrounding by happy expectant faces….or at least my one satisfied one.

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What are you making over the next few weeks?

Eat Local Challenge- The End

Posted on December 11, 2014 by cityhippyfarmgirl

rosemary, thyme and zucchini bread || cityhippyfarmgirl

Eat Local Challenge || cityhippyfarmgirl

Leek and potato soup- eat local challenge || cityhippyfarmgirl

pumpkin and jerusalem artichoke soup || cityhippyfarmgirl

carrot top pest recipe || cityhippyfarmgirl

easy cauliflower curry recipe || cityhippyfarmgirl

goat curry- Eat Local Challenge || cityhippyfarmgirl

At the beginning of this year I set out to find out more on my local food and what was available around me, living here in the city. I wanted a little challenge. Not a big one, but something to get me thinking a little differently.

I already supported a lot of local eating. Receive a weekly vegetable box delivered through OOOOBY. Was a frequent lurker at many of the city’s farmers markets, and knew which brands to head towards when in the shops.

So what did I learn from doing this? Well, number one, I would say, catering five sets of tastebuds to local eating is a little tricky. If it was just me, no problem? Two adults? Still pretty easy. Add three kiddos, slightly more complicated, but definitely doable.

Another thing I really valued after doing the challenge, is spices. I love spices, and there are bugger all of my favourite spices grown around Sydney. Sure I can do with out them, but a life long deletion? Hmmm….

Using tumeric, curry leaves, garlic, lime, chilli and salt were really important in the local dishes I made for extra flavour oomph. The Murray River Salt while technically not really local at all, I looked at it as knowing where it came from.

So what now? Now that the year has come to an end, where do I go from here with my local eating?

At this stage I’m not actually sure, (which might sound rather wishy washy) but I do think to do these things long term a gradual change is better. As you’ll have more chance of sticking by the changes, and that really is what I’ve done over 2014. Gradually introduced more local food options to our family’s meals, gotten to know some different companies and played with some different food alternatives to the tried and true ones I usually reach for.

Ive enjoyed doing it, my family didn’t notice any vast differences to our meals, and now that Pepe Saya has been introduced to our lives…well, there’s no going back now is there.

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Interested in creating your own Eat Local Challenge?

Just how local is local? Well this depends entirely on you. Only you know how you and your family eat. Raise the bar just a little from what you already do. If making sure the majority of your meal includes solely food produced in your country, than make that your challenge. If you want to make it a little trickier, go for produced in the same state…trickier still within 160km.

My aim this year was to really know where my food is coming from for at least one meal a month. These can all be found below.

Eat Local Challenge #10

Eat Local Challenge #9

Eat Local Challenge #8

Eat Local Challenge #7

Eat Local Challenge #6

Eat Local Challenge #5

Eat Local Challenge #4

Eat Local Challenge #3

Eat Local Challenge #2

Eat Local Challenge #1

kitchen crumbs

Posted on December 7, 2014 by cityhippyfarmgirl

There isn’t a lot of fancy gadgetry in my kitchen. I don’t yearn for many things, mostly I make do and am learning if it doesn’t serve my cooking purposes? Well, I may as well just get rid of it. There is no point what so ever in things taking up crucial cupboard space. A heavy, too small mixing bowl was recently replaced with a much lighter stainless steel bigger one. I think my kitchen cupboard and I both sighed in relief on swapping them over.

There has also been the obligatory bread. I can imagine there will always be bread crumbs in my kitchen. Without a loaf or too? Oh it’s very hard to imagine that!

Berries have been devoured round here lately. Mostly they don’t make it to the table. Mostly they are inhaled by the kitchen bench top… (and mostly I don’t get much of a look in with said berries.)

There is also the sweetest little enamelware teapot now gracing my bench top. Given to me from a wonderful considerate friend, who really is the bees knees. I feel very lucky.

My weekly Ooooby goodness delivered to the door. A wonderful benefit of living in the city.

And cinnamon rolls. There’s nothing left of these but kitchen crumbs.

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What’s happening in your kitchen?

(linking in with the kitchen Queen Celia @ Fig Jam and Lime Cordial)

Rosemary, Thyme and Zucchini Bread- ELC#10

Posted on November 27, 2014 by cityhippyfarmgirl

I’d tried to keep away from the bread for this challenge, but as I’m coming to the end of my year long challenge, it seemed appropriate that a bread dish slipped in.

This bread has actually been made a few times as it seems to hit the spot and eager mouths make short work of it in this household, (which you can’t really ask for much more than that can you?)

Now a big factor in what I make is really what arrives in my vegetable box once a week. I like cooking, but that doesn’t mean I don’t get completely bogged down with the old faithful line of (and lets face it often relentless) …”what are we having for dinner?” Getting a locally sourced vegetable box, helps make that decision, as you really do just have to use what they give you!

So where did it all come from?

Flour- Demeter Mills, Gunnedah

Salt- Murray River Salt

Zucchini- Rita’s Farm, Sydney

Thyme- my window sill

Rosemary- my courtyard

Olive Oil- Lisborne Grove, Hunter Valley

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Interested in taking the Eat Local Challenge?

My aim is to really know where my food is coming from for at least one meal a month, (where I will be posting here in the last week of the month).

Eat Local Challenge #9

Eat Local Challenge #8

Eat Local Challenge #7

Eat Local Challenge #6

Eat Local Challenge #5

Eat Local Challenge #4

Eat Local Challenge #3

Eat Local Challenge #2

Eat Local Challenge #1

Top 13 Eco friendly Gift Ideas

Posted on November 23, 2014 by cityhippyfarmgirl

1. Fermenters Starter Pack- scoby’s, sourdough starters etc. Bundle a bunch of your favourite fermented goodies together and some written ‘how to’ instructions.

2. Get baking. Put together a little hand made hamper. Jam’s, biscuits, brownie, cake, pesto, bread, Iced VoVo Cupcakes– the options are endless. If you team that up with a little second hand basket, (always nicer than a gifted pair of synthetic, made in China, novelty boxer shorts…promise.) A little hamper like this is sure to win over your loved ones.

3. A succulent in a vintage teacup I still say is a visual winner. Get creative.

4. Assistent Original– now this is a pricey gift for Christmas, but if you are serious about a kitchen investment that is going to cater for every kitchen whim you have- it’s a worthy investment, as cooking from scratch is a commitment and you want to make it as easy as possible. (For bread baking nerds, look no further… 5 kilos of dough she can handle.)

5. Sign a loved one up for a Milkwood Permaculture course, (or a locally grown Permaculture course in your area.) They will be brimming with inspiration afterwards, and that…is always a good thing.

6. Subscription to your locally based farmer friendly organic fruit and vegetable box.

7. A big jar of local honey. Honey can be used as a face wash and natural exfoliant, stirred into your morning chai, or drizzled over toast. Make a list for the recipient of all the things they can do with their sticky prized jar. It really is a sweet idea!

8. Still sweet talking. What about the ultimate gift of a hive of native bees. Your recipient will be beeeside themselves with happiness.

9. Have a peek over at Ecolosophy. They have some wonderful eco friendly, handmade and fairtrade goodies, perfect for all ages.

10. Or you could try… a simple plate, dish or second hand tin from your local op-shop/thrift shop/charity shop. Beautiful one off antique ones can bought for usually just a couple of dollars. Fill the plate with your favourite biscuits and the recipe printed out on the back of the card.

11. Digital Subscription to an inspiring magazine- someone will be jumping up and down with excitement. (Earth Garden Magazine, Great Ocean Quarterly, PiP Magazine, Green Magazine, Slow, Dumbo Feather– they are all wonderful!)

12. For the tea drinker- love chai, love tea and little ginger bread bites for dunking in. A simple present that is 673 times better than buying something bland in a generic department store.

13. For the baker, drinker, eater…errr anything really- enamelware. You can’t go wrong, really you can’t.

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What are some of your eco friendly gift ideas?

Lemon Berry Meringue (the party in a pie)

Posted on November 16, 2014 by cityhippyfarmgirl

Let’s cut to the chase with this.

Lemon Meringue Pie is the best dessert in the world.

The end.

Well, perhaps just a touch more. It has to be lemony, and tarty (and just quietly, a generous serving.)

I’ve been slowly building on my lemon meringue pies over the years and have accepted the fact that come birthday time, it’s a little meringue something that is to be made for the celebratory affair.

As the day in question was going to be a day that fell in the middle of the week with rather a lot of ‘normal’ things going on around it, I took it upon myself to create my own party in a pie shell.

As I’ve said before, I love, making my own birthday cake (or pie) as it happens. It means I get to make whatever I want and however I want. That is indeed a wonderful thing when I usually make things to cater for other people’s taste buds all year long.

This year there was no tweaking of last years recipe except for creating more “bling” up top in the form of flowers and berries. Sometimes it can just be ridiculously fun to, well, play with your food. (Even when your Italian Meringue doesn’t behave as it should and becomes the smooth oozy type. Yep, you just roll with it… keep playing.)

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Lemon Meringue Pie Recipe can be found here.

Crackers, pesto and for the love of good honey- ELC #9

Posted on October 30, 2014 by cityhippyfarmgirl

Super duper easy rustic style olive oil crackers, with a carrot top pesto, creme fraiche and a little salt on top.

I had a proud moment with this one, all local, easy, seasonal, very frugal and kid friendly. Yes, kid friendly was the ultimate winner for me. They were gulping them down!

They were also keen on getting their hands on this honey. Honey is always a favourite staple in this household and local harvested honey always seem to crop up just at the right time, (like when we are about to run out.)

This one will be drizzled on natural yogurt for an easy after dinner dessert, popped into smoothies, spread on toast with tahini and baked with an oaty combination in the oven. Every drop used.

So where did it all come from?

flour- Demeter Farm Mill

olive oil- Lisborne Grove, Hunter Valley

carrot tops- Rita’s Farm, Kemps Creek

lemons- Champion’s Organics, Mangrove Mountain

creme fraiche- Pepe Saya

Honey- Sth Coast NSW (bought when we were visiting the area)

Interested in taking the Eat Local Challenge?

My aim is to really know where my food is coming from for at least one meal a month, (where I will be posting here in the last week of the month).

Eat Local Challenge #8

Eat Local Challenge #7

Eat Local Challenge #6

Eat Local Challenge #5

Eat Local Challenge #4

Eat Local Challenge #3

Eat Local Challenge #2

Eat Local Challenge #1

Iced Vovo Cupcakes

Posted on October 26, 2014 by cityhippyfarmgirl

Mostly this is a household of wholemeal spelt, raw kale salads, buckwheat, sourdough and whatever is fermenting on the benchtop at the time. Occasionally all of that goes out the window and something like the Iced VoVo Cupcake comes along though.

I knew I wanted to make them. I’d been dreaming of how I would do so, but the right time just hadn’t come along yet.

Then it did.

The time was right and Iced Vovo Cupcakes was a surety.

You might have heard the squeals of delight from the pint sized ones as I put these on the table, (I’d be surprised if you hadn’t heard them.)

Iced Vovo Cupcakes

150g butter

2 eggs

150g (2/3 cup) sugar

2 tsp vanilla

300g (2 cups) self raising flour

125mls (1/2 cup) milk

Marshmallow Topping

100g marshmallows

small amount of raspberry/strawberry jam

extra desiccated coconut for sprinkling

Cream butter and sugar. Add in vanilla, beaten eggs, and milk together than fold in flour. Bake in lined cupcake tray, 180C for about 25 minutes. (Or until light golden in colour.)

Marshmallow topping

In a bowl, microwave 100g of marshmallows for 30 seconds. The marshmallows will be soft, mix them around a little and then cool for about 5 minutes before you put them in the piping bag. Too hot and they will drip off the cake, too cool and they will just end up a sticky mess. Pipe them on, leaving a small hole for the jam up top. Pop them into the fridge to set them for 10 minutes. Add half a teaspoon of jam into the hole and sprinkle a little coconut on top.

Ready to eat!

cityhippyfarmgirl

simple connected living, city style

Category Archives: Food Glorious Food

Vanilla Plum Jam

Kitchen Creations

Banana Smoothie Ice Cream

Happiness in eating local

5 recipes I’ll be making over the holiday period

Eat Local Challenge- The End

kitchen crumbs

Rosemary, Thyme and Zucchini Bread- ELC#10

Top 13 Eco friendly Gift Ideas

Lemon Berry Meringue (the party in a pie)

Crackers, pesto and for the love of good honey- ELC #9

Iced Vovo Cupcakes