Crock Pot Cooking

Hello Friends!

A while back I decided to buy a Crock Pot. I'd owned one when I lived in America and loved it. I used it for all sorts of savoury dishes, but also used it as a hot punch bowl for my Spiced Apple Cider and even as a simmering potpourri pot using fresh herbs and spices!

So, for a while now I've been hankering after a good old fashioned rice pudding and with the weather taking it's turn for the worse and getting more and more wintry by the day, I decided to make one today ~ in the Crock Pot, of course. Now, rice pudding isn't exactly rocket science and is a very easy recipe, but oh! how much easier it is in the Crock Pot!

With the winds blowing wildly outside the cottage today and with a hankering to increase the hygge, it was the perfect day to make this childhood comfort food as a pudding for later on.

I weighed out the ingredients and just tipped them all into the Crock Pot which I then turned to high for about three hours. I kept an eye on it as I've not done a rice pudding in the Crock Pot before, and it did need fairly regular stirring but there was none of that lifting a heavy dish in and out of the oven, it was right there on the counter top making life so much easier.

I had a late lunch today, and the pudding was ready to be eaten with a dollop of strawberry jam after lunch ~~~

Just weigh out your ingredients, I'm sure everyone has the recipe, but just in case, these are the measurements I used

200 gr pudding rice {be sure to use short grain pudding rice}
1 litre milk {I used semi skimmed}
1 small can condensed milk {or increase your milk by 200 ml}
50 gr unsalted butter
30 gr soft brown sugar {any sugar will be fine}
{nutmeg, cinnamon, or other spices may be added to taste, if desired and you can always melt a little chocolate in, or add some chopped dried fruits, such as craisins, apricots, or sultanas}

Tip all ingredients into your Crock Pot and turn on. Cook for about 3 hours on high, or 5~6 hours on low, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking and checking to see if pudding is cooked.

I forgot to take a photo of the cooked pudding in the pot, but here it is, served up, thick and creamy, with a dollop of strawberry jam. If you like a thinner pudding, just add more milk ~~~

I don't know why, but this is one of the most delicious rice puddings I have ever eaten!

Meanwhile, back in the garden ~~~

My osteospermus just haven't got the message yet that the weather is turning rapidly and they really should not still be flowering ~~~ I bought these earlier in the year and put them into a growbag  meaning to move them to a permanent location during the summer. The best laid plans, as they say, and the move never happened so they are still in the growbag and I really must get them into the soil before we get the very bad weather that they say is coming.  Here they are, full of lovely strong new shoots coming from around the bases, and a few blooms still insisting on flowering for some autumn colour!

There are three different colours, but this purple one is my favourite of all ~~~

They are still not particularly big, but very sturdy and healthy, so I really must get them in the ground this coming week, even if I just bury them wholesale in the bag until spring to protect the roots.

Here are a few pictures of the skies over the cottage in the last week ~~~
I am always amazed and in total awe at the diversity and beauty of the universe ~~~

an early rose gold sunrise through a rain spotted window pane ~~~

a jewel coloured palette of a mauve and golden sunset ~~~

and I had hoped to capture the November Super Moon, but we were, as so often happens, scuppered by cloud cover, so here is one of our beautiful moon taken a few days before the perigee ~~~

Until next time ~~~
~~~Deborah

Apple Sauce and Wasps

Hello Friends!

Oh, dear, there has been a mishap!  I'm not really sure what happened, but I managed to delete all my photos of the process before I uploaded them ~ sighs ~ so, my friends, only one photo of the ingredients and process today ~ sorry ~ but these things do happen ~~~ as I don't know what happened, I can't say 'lesson learned' can I?

As an aside, do you think we are more protective and precious about storing, and the possible loss, of our photographic memories since the advent of digital images and The Cloud? I make back ups of my back ups, but in the heady, good old days of real film all we had was our set of prints and our negatives and if something happened, well, it happened and they were gone. Today, if I lose a photo I wail and mourn it for days on end ~ we are a peculiar lot, we humans!

I digress.  In the garden there is an apple tree. I do not know the name of the apple, or the number of the dwarf stock upon which it is grafted, but I do know that it produces some of the most delicious rosy red apples worthy of The Wicked Queen's basket in Snow White {which just so happens is my favourite fairy tale}

During Springtime, the tree is a bridal bouquet of purest white blossoms with a delicate tinge of pink, then as the blossoms fall and fade, tiny hard green marbles appear, and slowly, over the Summer months they swell and grow, gradually changing colour as they aspire to the warm and rich candy apple red of the mature fruit.

For those of you who have not read it, I wrote a Haiku {actually, my first and only Haiku to date} about the apple blossom.  Here it is, superimposed on a photograph of the tree ~~~

and here are some images of the tree, the earlier blossoms, and the harvest of the fruits ~~~

Now, I have competition in the garden for my apples, the birds love them, and also the horrible wasps that nest in a neighbour's bird box, and which home in on the fragrant scent and nibble away at the tops, hidden from view, so that very often I pick an otherwise perfect looking apple only to find it is spoiled.  Wearing long sleeves and gloves is a must when picking these apples, as is exercising great caution and care not to be stung by the competition ~~~

Half eaten by the birds, the wasps come in to finish the job

Help yourself, please, do!

This year, however, the apples ripened a lot earlier and I got to them sooner so the damage is minimal compared to other years. Sadly, probably due to the unseasonably cold Spring and Summer, the fruits are not as big as they normally are, nor are they as many.  I am grateful for what I have harvested and now the time for putting the fruits up into storage is here!

Here is this year's harvest ~~~ about 20lbs or so ~~~

I love Apple Sauce, I use it a lot in yogurt or cream; poured over ice cream; on my porridge or muesli; or stirred into red cabbage; stirred in a warm mixed fruit compote for breakfast.  It's a quick and easy way of getting an extra portion of fruit, especially if you lower the sugar, as I do.

With a lot of apples to process each year, about twenty years ago I invested in a gizmo that peels, cores, and slices my apples at the turn of a handle. It has more than paid for itself as the wastage is minimal and it speeds up the process a lot.  Apple Master Peeler available at Lakeland Ltd.

And, yes, I buy my cinnamon in big bags! I really do use a lot of cinnamon in my cooking and baking, and buy it in bulk from Steenbergs.

So, I am making up lots of delicious Apple Sauce for the freezer as there are a lot of slightly under ripe and damaged apples that won't keep and are unfit for eating raw, but with the damage cut away they will be just fine made into delicious apple sauce. Here's what I do ~~~

3 1/2 to 4 lbs of apples, peeled, cored, and sliced
1 cup of brown sugar {you can use white if you prefer}
300 mls of good quality cloudy apple juice, such as Copella
1 tablespoon {or to taste} cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon {or to taste} ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon {or to taste} freshly ground nutmeg
1 tablespoon lemon juice

Put all ingredients into a Crock Pot and cook on low for 6 hours, or until your preferred consistency is reached. I like mine chunky, so keep an eye on it after about 4 1/2 hours.  Cool and spoon into freezer containers.
Enjoy!

Of course, you can always make it more quickly in a large saucepan, but I find I like it better from the Crock Pot ~ I don't know if it is the stoneware pot or the slow cooking process, but the flavour is deeper and more apple~y.

~~~~~

One thing I love about working in the garden is the company of the extra little helpers, and here is one of my regulars who always pops up for a beak full of juicy bugs and worms ~~~

Until next time ~~~
Deborah