Looking for inspiration

I couple of weeks ago I read this truly great book by Juanita Phillips: A Pressure Cooker Save My Life.  It is all about her quest to keep her family healthy, happy, fed, hold down a busy job and keep up the mortgage repayments. Definitely a must read for any working mum.  Ever since I have been on the look out for a cheap pressure cooker, but no luck so far.  And unfortunately my budget doesn't stretch far enough to be able to splurge on one of these.  I am very keen to try out some of the recipes she includes.

It is sad to note that since this book was published my understanding (from tabloid fodder) is that her husband has battled through bowel cancer and they have since divorced.  However the book is fantastic and a completely realistic take on the challenges faced by many families with small children.

After reading the book, I really felt like Juanita Phillips could comfortably sit on the lounge in our hectic household and chat the afternoon away, ignoring spilt drinks and the attention seeking dog quite happily.  Not sure if this is truly the case or she is in fact just a great writer (or possibly indeed both).

A bit slow

Things have slowed down considerably this week.  I am unwell with a cold so many of our meals have been spaghetti on toast or bacon and eggs.  I did manage to hold out until the weekend to get the grocery shopping done and also (I think given my state of feeling miserable) did a very small shop.  So hopefully that means some good savings this week.

Today I am going to try and do some slice baking,  so am pulling our one of my most loved and most used cookbooks.

School snacks and sweet treats

How good is weekend baking!  We are heading to a picnic with friends this evening so I am cooking roast beef and potato salad to go with fresh rolls and a garden salad for our feast.  The house smells beautiful!  Lazy days are few and far between so I am doing a bit of baking: home made LCM bars (thanks for the recipe @BrendonWalker) and the most scrumptious biscuit ever, Russian Tea Cookies.

LCM bars

• 8 cups rice bubbles
• 1 tin condensed milk
• small pack of choc chips

1. Grease and line with baking paper a slice tin, put on oven at 160C
2. Mix everything together in a big bowl
3. Spread mixture evenly in tins and smooth down
4. Bake for about 20 mins at 160C (keep your eye on them I expect they are easy to overcook)
5. Let them cool in the tin then slice into bars and store in an air tight container

Note that I probably should have put mine in one tin rather than two as they ended up too thin and really didn't work out well as they were not thick enough to slice (see we all have kitchen failures from time to time!).  Another friend swears by a slightly different recipe for these which you can find here.

Russian tea cookies
Alas this is not my (or a friend's) recipe to publish.  But I can guarantee they are the yummiest biscuit you will ever eat.  Reading is one of my greatest pleasures, and one of my most re-read series of novels of all time is the Paullina Simons Bronze Horseman trilogy.

If you have read these three novels (The Bronze Horseman, The Bridge to Holy Cross and The Summer Garden) you will be familiar with the main character, Tatiana's love for food.  In fact such a huge theme that food and cooking plays in these books (and one assumes the author's too), has no doubt resulted in the "companion" Tatiana's Table cook book.  In this little gem of a book you can find the recipe for Russian tea cookies (on page 102).   This recipe alone is worth purchasing this book, or at the very least making a trip to the library. A lovely light, sweet biscuit with a hint of chewiness and

Note that the recipe uses walnuts for coating the biscuits, in my opinion the biscuits are just as yum without the walnuts and it means you can send them to school too.

The butcher

Last fortnight, I bought most of my meat from the butcher.  I love going to the butcher and seeing all the different types of meat laid out to choose from, not to mention the multiple cooking tips and tricks.  My husband loves it when I go to the butcher, probably because he has asked them to say "steak" every time I walk in.

This is an untapped resource people! If you are doing all your grocery shopping online, or heading to the supermarket late at night when the kids are asleep you are missing out.  Even if like me you are on a tight budget, I will pick up meat specials at the supermarket, but then always head to the butcher for other types of cuts.

If you haven't found a good butcher close by there are some online bulk meat delivery options too, so if you have freezer space you can save by purchasing this way.  Check out my butcher's online service if you live locally, or search around in your area. Alternatively, get yourself a book that will tell you how to make the most out of different cuts of meat.