Today has been a very busy day! I have not stopped much, but have gotten lots done and eaten more than my fill! I am absolutely stuffed with foods... let me tell you how it went in the kitchen!
I have been up since early this morning, because a certain child decided to get up around 6am, so since I was awake, it was the perfect time to just jump in and get things done for the day.
We don't eat meat very often, actually we have spent more than a few years as very strict vegans, however, during the last couple of years have introduced a very limited amount of lamb, duck, goose and fish into our diets. Especially if they are our own.
Everyone had decided lamb was in order for today, so I had a leg of lamb ready to go into the oven this morning. I didn't do anything special with it - just lots of baby shallots, garlic, salt, pepper and dried sage from my herb garden.
This was slow cooked all morning while I prepared mixed root vegetables, fragrant rice with spices, fresh grated salad of beetroot, apple, carrot, cucumber, red onion with a balsamic vinegar, honey mustard dressing.
I served our dinner with herbed bread and gravy made from the lamb. It was lovely! Then for our dessert we had a mini buffet of salted nuts, mango slices, date squares, flapjacks and dandelion coffee - which we took outside because the day was so nice.
Throughout all of this cooking and eating, I found the time (finally!) to open my new toy - a Kenwood Chef mixer, blender, food processor. I had been waiting all week to use it because it was bought for primarily one thing.
The very last item (I think?) on our list of shop bought factory made foods that has to go is nut butter. However, we love this stuff and have been eating it for many years. My favourite would be hazelnut butter while the kids love tahini and sunflower seed butter.
With this type of food on the way out, I needed to be able to make my own. After much research we decided on the Kenwood - hoping it would be able to grind the nuts enough to make a paste or a butter. I was willing to go with it, even if it was a bit rough.
Tonight, I roasted 2 cups of almonds on 180 degrees C for about 10 minutes or so. Then poured one cup at a time into the blender. Even though the machine comes with a food processor, it is completely plastic which is never a good idea around foods.
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| Almonds in the blender |
As an aside, these food processors contain BPA plastic, which are some of the worst offenders when it comes to leaching chemicals into the food. Oily foods such as nuts, are not a good idea in plastic, nor is it wise to use with heated foods.
I did look for a stainless steel food processor, however they were only available in a high end commercial type (it was lovely!) but way too much and too big for our needs at the moment.
After reading so many comments from people who make their own nut butters using various types of machines, I knew to keep running the blender until the nuts started to clump together from the nut oils in the almonds.
After about 6-8 minutes, it did just as it should and formed a nice nut butter. The smell is heavenly, everyone had a little taste - it was given a pass and we are now in business where nut butters are concerned.
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| Voila Almond butter! |
I am quite excited by this machine and can't wait to see if it can be as useful as it appears. Perhaps, my entire kitchen experience is about to change! LOL
Oh, and we had a very nice Blue Moon ceremony outside - just as we were about to close our circle, a great flock of young crows (ravens?) flew overhead, it was all we could hear for a few minutes until they had passed over.
I had chills down my back, it was beautiful,
Enjoy your Blue Moon!
April
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| Blue Moon Ceremony - me and my children |
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