Old fashioned lemonade

I borrowed a book from the library recently that included this recipe. I can't remember the book's exact title, but it was along the lines of "The way Grandma did it", and it was mostly recipes, house-keeping and gardening tips.

My Dad scribbled down the recipe for Old Fashioned Lemonade and after he'd made some and liked it I decided to try it too. It was very simple, took maybe 15 minutes and made a very refreshing drink that will do well over the coming Summer months.

I made it with tap water the first time, but I am tempted to try it with sparkling to make it more "like soft drink", and I am also keen to try different juice flavours. As we have a few Mandarin trees, a Lemonade tree, an Orange and a newly purchased Lemon tree, I'm sure I'll have plenty of opportunities to try combinations over the years :)

Ingredients 

1 cup of tap water
1 cup of white sugar
1 cup of freshly squeezed juice (I strained my to rid it of pulpy bits)
Extra water, still or sparkling, to taste (the recipe I used called for 3-4 cups, but for my taste I added closer to 6 cups, otherwise it was far too strong!)

Method

Mix 1 cup of water with sugar. Dissolve the sugar over a low heat, stirring slowly. You can tell it's done when the water is clear, and no longer cloudy.

Squeeze juice and strain if desired.

Add juice and sugar syrup to a 2 litre jug, and fill to taste with extra water.

Notes
I gave the jug a quick stir before pouring so the consistency and flavour remained even. Approximately 2 litres of this kept well for 5 days in our fridge, I suspect it would last longer but we drank it all ;)

Baking Scrolls

I started this recipe post a few weeks ago - the scrolls featured are now pretty much finished! I've been jotting down stuff to blog about but have been a bit busy actually doing stuff rather than blogging about it, but there are plenty of more posts to come ;)

Vegemite scroll dough all rolled up ready to be sliced

I had a big baking day yesterday, and filled a big container with 2 kinds of savoury scrolls and a big batch of Banana and Weetbix muffins (previously posted) to have some frozen snacks for lunch boxes on hand. I'm lucky in that my kids do generally eat fruit or carrot sticks without much fuss, but I am still trying to sneak in goodness where I can, so this time I added some pumpkin seeds in the muffins, and no one has even noticed! Miss Almost 6 is fussy with food, so if I find something she likes that isn't chips or chicken nuggets, I get excited.

A friend posted on Facebook that she was baking cheese and Vegemite scrolls and some pear muffins for her kids. INSPIRATION! Why hadn't I thought of baking savoury scrolls? My fusspot loves stuff like that from Bakers Delight, so I figured making them myself was worth a go, so she can have them and feel like it's a treat without it costing me. Success! Miss Almost 6 gobbled up four scrolls (only about a scone-size) for afternoon tea, and has asked for me to make more when these ones are done!

This is the base-recipe I used, though I doubled it and  I made a batch with just Vegemite (Miss Almost 6 requested no cheese with them) and a batch of bacon and cheese too.

Scrolls:

2 cups of Self Raising flour
A pinch of salt
85 grams of unsalted butter
2/3 cup of milk (though I added more when kneading it, as it was too floury)

Method: Mix flour and salt. Rub butter in with fingertips. Mix in the milk until dough forms. Knead on floured bench until all the flour is worked in (I had to add a little more milk as mine wasn't sticking together. You don't want it wet, just like play dough). Roll the dough out to a thickeness of 1cm, it should make a good 30cm circle. Top with whatever combination you like (bacon and cheese; cheese and sweet chilli sauce; Vegemite and cheese; tomato paste, ham and cheese), and roll dough into a log. Slice into approx 2cm slices and bake on a lined pizza tray. I glaze mine with milk, and bake for 12-14 minutes on 180 degrees Celsius.

Recipe notes: A single batch of these made 12 or 13 scrolls. I don't really do the sums on this sort of recipe, but given the most expensive ingredient would be the bacon, and the rest are pretty much pantry staples, I class these as pretty cheap!

All baked and cooling down

Dough rolled, cooked bacon pieces and grated cheese sprinkled

Bacon and cheeses all ready for the oven

Having  tub full of home-baked snacks on hand makes me feel super organised

Banana and weetbix muffins

Our Family Day Carer passed this recipe on to me a couple of weeks ago. She got it given to her by another parent and assured me they were worth a try. I figured any home-baked treat for the kids lunch boxes that contains fruit and wholegrain cereal is worth a shot. Happily, these were a huge hit with my kids, and a friend's kids whom I road-tested them on when we had a play date.

They did take a little longer to prepare than the recipe I usually use, but the kids and I had a fun morning baking together and they especially loved crushing up the weetbix and taking turns adding ingredients and mixing :)

Ingredients: 

Bowl 1

1 1/2 cups self raising flour
2 TBS brown sugar
1/2 cup chocolate chips

Bowl 2

2 eggs
3 TBS oil

Bowl 3

3 ripe bananas, mashed
4 weetbix, crushed (I used the Aldi brand)
1 cup milk

Method: 

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius, and line a muffin tray with patty pans

Add each of the ingredients to its designated bowl. Once you've added the banana, weetbix and milk to bowl 3, let it soak for 10 minutes.

Beat the eggs and oil (bowl 2) well

After the 10 minutes is up, add the beaten eggs and oil (Bowl 2) to your other wet ingredients (Bowl 3)

Combine Bowl 1's contents (flour, sugar, choc chips), and then mix in the mixed wet ingredients (Bowl 1) until just combined, do not over mix

Spoon mixture into a prepared muffin tray and bake for approximately 25 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean.

Notes:

This made us a batch of 24 cupcake-sized muffins, but if you use the larger muffin cases I would guess you'd get at least a dozen. These were delicious on the day we baked them, and the left overs froze well for later use in the kids lunch boxes.

All ready for the freezer