My big fat pantry challenge

Every now and again I have to stop buying groceries and use up what I have and I have decided that now is as good a time as any.

Pantry beginnings

I consider my freezer, fridge, garden and physical pantry all part of this challenge. I didn't have a pantry until August last year, before that my groceries were in a normal cupboard. When we did our renovations we decided on taking a small awkward passage way and turning it into a pantry and a "cloakroom" where we keep sports equipment, homeschool resources, sewing and scrapbooking stuff. These two rooms are separate from one another but used up this dead space so well.

My pantry is a real pleasure...except when it comes to keeping it tidy. Superman says "entropy" (movement towards degradation!) is something that takes place all the time in the universe, so I will spend each holiday giving a cupboard a good cleaning and sorting out, only to find out that within a week stuff is in the wrong place, mixed up, untidy and messy...almost as if it happened on its own :(

Trying to keep order

So yesterday I got stuck into the pantry for a deep clean. Every basket was unpacked, cleaned and repacked in an orderly fashion, shelves wiped down, jars and plastics without lids sent to recycling, and lids without jars too!

I also check expiry dates on whatever I put back into the pantry and fridge. If you keep medicines in your fridge, now is a good time to check those too.

This left me with a clear idea of what I have as basic ingredients with which to create meals.

The garden has some peas, carrots, spinach, lettuce and herbs for me at the moment. Then this morning my freezer was subjected to a stock take.

Tidy pantry

My freezer holds grass fed boerewors, mince, pork hocks, chicken necks (for stock), chicken livers, raw cat and dog food.

My fridge holds eggs, cheese, milk and some odds.

I am truly glad we are having a break from schooling at the moment so that I can be creative with our meals. When I am doing a pantry challenge like this (generally not more than twice a year) I do not plan meals...I take each day as it comes. I figure that besides for milk we should be eating quite well for the next few weeks.

Last night I made a delicious lamb and lentil pie with left over roast leg of lamb. On the side were the last peas and cabbage.

This morning for breakfast was almond and banana pancakes with yoghurt and honey and bacon.

Lunch was sweet potato and sweet pepper soup.

Tonight will be chilli con carne meatballs on bulgar wheat...nom nom, can't wait! Oh...and a peach almond crumble with homemade custard. (We have guests coming!)

Are you up for a pantry challenge?

Curing olives ~ a labor of love

Every year for the last 3 years I have cured olives for our home consumption. The first time I did it though it was helping a friend do her own stash and it was such fun and hers tasted so good a few months down the line that I had to try it myself. I eventually found a local farmer who would sell me 20kgs a year and so began the process.

Fresh raw olives

We can only get black mission olives from our farmer and while I used to always buy Calamata from the store, I have learnt to enjoy Black Mission now.

In the beginning I wonder why I put myself through this as I change the water each day for 2 weeks. It's a bother to drain the water and refill all these jars each day. For this process I only use tap water but later on I switch to spring water for the long wait.

Floating egg

So after 2 weeks of sitting in fresh water, changed everyday I switch them to brine. They sit in brine for up to 3 months which draws out the last bitterness and allows them to develop their flavor.

Figuring out the water to salt ratio is fun the first time but to get it right with each jar it becomes a bit long in the tooth as I end up pouring more and more salt into the water to get the egg to float.The floating egg indicates the right amount of salinity to the water which is the perfect brine ratio.


After about 3 months I rinse an olive or two from each 5 liter jar and taste it. They are very salty at this stage but what I am looking for is no bitter after taste. If they are not at this stage then they stay in the brine for a few more weeks. I taste again more or less every two weeks until they are salty, but bitter free.

Rosemary olives

Now is the fun time! Jar by jar I rinse the olives and put them back into the jars with a 1:3 ratio of wine vinegar/red wine/apple cider vinegar to water. I tried all three this time. Then to each jar I add about 10 cloves of garlic, unpeeled and whole.

I then add something different in the line of herb or spice. This years batches are one each of chilli and fennel seed. Another 2 jars received about 5 sprigs of fresh rosemary and still another 2 recieved handfulls of majoram. Another 2 were left with just garlic. I do not add salt to this last solution as the olives retain enough salt from the brining process.

Lastly I add a generous layer of locally produced olive oil called Olive Pickers. I could buy the cheaper imported stuff, but I like the flavour of this one.

They will now sit in the jars in a cupboard and be eaten over the next year until it is Autum 2013 when the process starts again.

In our home, olives are eaten daily as anytime snacks, used in breads and salads and this year I am very keen to make some tapenades...but we'll see.

Have you tried curing olives?

Rich fragrant vegetable stock

As our wormery is in no need of peelings and our compost heaps are breaking their boundaries, I decided to hold back a couple of days vegetable peelings and make a rich stock. I'll admit to being quite generous in the celery department by not using the leaves in other meals so that they could be added to the stock, but for the rest it was just the parts not used like garlic and onion outers, tops of marrows and squash, ends of tomatoes and carrot peels. After 2 days we had a packed bowl full.

I gently browned a few cloves of garlic in some olive oil....

Then tipped the peels etc into the pot.....

And covered it with spring water....

About 1 hour later I added a huge bunch of herbs - thyme, parsley and majoram. I also added about 10 whole peppercorns.

Allowed to simmer for 3 hours, then left overnight to cool.


This morning I strained it and put it into jars for use this week and some into plastic containers to freeze for later use.

I wish I could explain the fragrance of this stock. We have been making meat stocks for a couple of years now and they have their own warming smell. But this vegetable stock had such a full bodied smell....can't wait to use it.

Stockpiles, fast slow food and my fridge.

Last week I stocked up on the basics I need for cooking nutritious fast food for my family. Once everything was in the fridge I realized how much the contents of my fridge have changed over the last 3 years.

No more convenience foods with lots of packaging...just the raw materials to make good wholesome meals. Not the most glamorous pictures, but this gives you an idea.

3 kinds of stocks, yoghurt, veg and tomato sauce....ready for some fast slow food. Not seen here are the bags of grain - spelt, organic wheat, barley and rye.

Today I had 9 people to feed over lunch and it took me a few minutes to throw a delicious nutritious soup and bread together for us all.

Leeks, sliced and softened in butter, 4 beef shin pieces, chopped carrots and turnips. 1 jar of beef stock, 1 jar of tomato and veg sauce (tomatoes, carrots, celery). Add 1 cup of barley and 1 cup spring water and allow to simmer for about 3 hours. Season to taste and serve.

A busy kitchen week...

I took the gap this week and spent some time every day building up my food bases. These are things that we use all month in a variety of dishes and I need to make them every 2 - 3 weeks.

This month we ordered a whole lamb from our free range organic butcher as it works out much cheaper and we do have the freezer space. I never like cooking with ribs so I made them into lamb stock which I will use with all the yummy lamb stews we can now make.

The other thing I use a lot of is a tomato based source. I use it in all my pastas and some curries. I don't follow a recipes - it's simple about 5kg tomoatoes, washed and quartered, a good handful of chopped celery, about 10 carrots grated and 2 heaped tablespoons of garlic. I leave this to cook until soft then cool and put in bottles in the fridge.

My son helped me squeeze lemons and oranges for lemon curd which is our winter jam.

I fed the sour dough starter and made two delicious sour dough rye loaves which were just superb with the lemon curd.

I also picked the last of our chillies and made 3 jars fo sweet chilli sauce and pickled the remaining ones.



Besides all of these, I made 4 litres of yoghurt, chicken stock, beef stock and two delicious pies. My mom and dad were here for the first two days and I wanted to treat them so I made Jamie Oliver's steak and guiness pie and followed it with a blackberry and apple pie with old fashioned short crust pastry for dinner the one evening. It was just delicious.

On Tuesday night before home church started we shared pudding with the other family we meet with. This is such a simple recipe and is great for all types of juicy fruits. I have given the recipe before which you can find here on my blog.

A week of good food memories.

Breaking the shopping fast!

It's been 4 weeks since my last shop visit.... :-)

But honestly the list had grown just too long to put off any longer. My freezer is still full and my stockpile still fine, although a dent has been made. It was all the little odds and ends that needed to be attended to.

So after school was done for the day I spent a glorious hour at the shop, doing my banking and getting my list attended too. I also treated my self to a Seattle coffee and some sushi (there's always a need for sushi!).

It was so nice to have had this break from shopping as it freed up my time in other areas, that I think I may go back to a monthly (rather than weekly) shop.

But I did promise more on comfort food...a nice quick one that my whole family likes in winter and one that my older children can make pretty much on their own is a simple cottage pie.



As it a one dish meal I like to add 3 different colors of veggies to it. Simply brown and season the mince and onions, add the peeled chopped veggies and then when the gravy is all thickened top with some creamy mashed potatoes.

I also had a small packet of bacon bits that the children added which gave it a delicious smokey flavour. The veggies that went in were frozen peas and baby turnips and carrots from our garden.



They like to make swirls on the top of the mash before lightly grilling the top. Very yummy!

EEEK...where am I going to put all this stuff?

I think I may have gotten a little carried away in the moment!?!



I have been building up my stockpile for the last few months and it is coming along well. But yesterday I had finished my 3 months planning sheet from www.foodstoragemadeeasy.net and was inspired :-)

My goal is to not have to go to the "big" shops for the next 5 weeks due to the World Cup. I actually think it's a little paranoid seeing that only 5 matches are being played in Cape Town and the rest at higher altitudes...but anyhow!

So besides for what I have bought over the last few months, this was the last push before Friday when it all starts.

I realized when we unpacked all this that there are so many things that we make ourselves, the biggest ones being our own dog food (raw materials rice-veg-meat) and clothes washing powder (raw materials: sunlight soap-borax-washing soda), bread, pasta, sauces, treats, puddings and more.

But I also looked at the pile filling my kitchen counter and thought that there must be more that we can do.

I used to make my own muesli, but got lazy...I did only buy the raw materials for that this time round.

The girls and I were making a list of the things we need to make on the weekend to process this, I think we have a busy couple of days ahead.

A little more canning

This past Sunday we picked all our chillies and rhubarb and canned them. I made a green chilli sauce that will test anyones manhood! I simple chopped the stalks off, and put them in a pot with onions, a couple of tomatoes and some sugar. I then cooked until soft and then used my stick blender to smooth.



Then I tried a recipe from Balls Book of Canning for my rhubarb. A very interesting Rhubarb and Orange Chutney was the result.







Then on Tuesday we bought 5kgs of delicious ripe tomatoes and I made pasta sauce which I use as a base for many dishes. This is made simply by chopping the tomatoes, adding some onion, garlic, celery, basil and grated carrot.



When it is reduced I use my stick blender to make it smooth. I prefer to freeze this rather than can as I have more space in my freezer than in my cupboards.

Seasons come and seasons go

Despite my plans for today, I woke up with a very sore back from my rock climbing this week. Because "Why I Went Rock Climbing" is a long story and not relevant to this blog I will not go into it, suffice to say that my back is sore!

That meant no heavy work in the garden and a rather reduced TO DO list for the day. As I was repondering my list I was thinking about seasons. We are heading into winter and autumn has left its mark. While I love the beauty of the autumn leaves, I find autum a very messy season. Then comes winter with all the rain...no snow and frost here, just days of wind and rain. Spring comes with promises and beauty and summer with heat and work.

If you will allow me a little analogy, I feel like I am in autumn right now. My life is a little unorganized and messy but not without hope. Busy-ness is really an enemy of organization but I know that I cannot continue to keep my fingers in all these pies if I don't get back into the organized state I was in a while back.

This is not a revelation, just a thought that has been running around my head for a few weeks. So today I decided that we would do a little organizing of cupboards. Yesterday I did a big grocery shop as I have eventually gotten my head around stockpiling and have a plan.

My mom was here this week and gave the vine a good prune.

As a tree has to shed leaves for winter dormancy I had to shed some clutter to make space for the new. I am not going to be adding shelves to my home to carry my stockpile just yet as all I want to do is have enough for three months and I feel we can make do with what shelves we have.

The three areas we organized were a little alcove that holds my sewing, scrapbooking, knitting and odds. Most of the odds were set aside to give away and the other things sorted. There will now be plenty of space for our toiletries and non perishable stockpile here as the floor is now clear of all items and has lots of space.



Then we sorted our grocery cupboard and got rid of anything that was too old to use. I hate wasting, but there were somethings that got hidden behind new things and forgotten.



Then we sorted the baking centre. As the girls bake they often hurriedly put things into this cupboard and it was a shocker. It still needs more decluttering but has to do for now.



Perhaps tomorrow we will truly sort this last area, but for now, I need to rest my back.

Laziness is relative!

I confessed the other day that I feel I have been wandering a bit in my convictions in certain areas of my homemaking. One such are is keeping cookie jars filled and providing homemade snacks.

I think when one tends to spend the majority of ones time in the kitchen preparing meals it is easy to veer away from this for smaller things like treats. However, with growing children who graze ALL day I have to keep good food around to feed their growing bodies in between meals.

On Sunday evening from 4 - 7 I took a look at all the bits of ingredients lying around and made:

3 trays of buttermilk rusks



Zucchini Choc-chip cookies



Blueberry and rhubarb jam



Mixed my bread dough for the week



Made some hamburger rolls for dinner and a double batch of patties for the young 'uns to snack on during the week.



The problem with this is that the kitchen ends up in a complete mess and it's a lot to clean up, but I suppose if you make a big mess or small mess it's all the same. The cook-a-thon helped me to use up all the ends of flours and the last big courgette and rhubarb stems....not too shabby for 3hrs work.

Stockpiling ~ is it necessary?

I've been thinking, in fact I think about things all the time. I chew topics over in my mind over a long period when I feel there is something that needs to be addressed in our home or lifestyles.

Some things are easy to do ~ real no brainers...like should we save water? Or should I grow vegetables...easy things to implement.



But this issue of stockpiling has been worrying me a bit. I don't like doomsday prophets and naysayers...I prefer to trust in Father God to care for me and mine. This said I also believe as the Bible says: "A prudent person foresees danger and takes precautions. The simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences." Proverbs 22:3.

I like to think that I make wise decisions and that I am not a simpleton so I have been thinking about what steps we should take to be more prepared in case of food shortages, basic services and to reduce water and electricity dependence.

I could carry on thinking about this for a long time until I have it all sorted in my head...but this morning I read an article on the 2010 World Cup Soccer and the possible resulting food shortages and price hikes we may experience.

This may just be the thing to push me over the fence and start making inroads into stockpiling, water tanks and solar power.



Anyway, a few months ago I signed up for a E-zine on www.survival-homestead.com purely to get his very comprehensive survival kit/stockpiling lists. Wow! Are these lists completely all encompassing thorough lists....if you are keen to get thinking along with me, then do sign up for it.