Greeny News

of baked beans and bread with peanut butter and chicken, which is - not - it is worth to you

most boring decisions they face in adulthood and his mother works seemed to be made at the supermarket. Fundamentally trivial, however, were annoying full, on issues of time, quality, money, the first world guilt, blame the mother, gender, meaning and health. I just had to go through the automatic doors for mental calculations flattering to get started: Owen needs cupcakes to school and to look at, they are there, ready to go. Nutritionally hopeless - but did - £ 10 for 24 trans fat-filled snack cakes? Good grief. I'm cooking.

This means that we need the eggs and eggs are cheap here. But they are laid by hens living in cages debeaked size boxes of Tic Tac. If I went to the farmers market on Sunday to buy eggs there ... But how can I know what kind treats its chickens and eggs just because it sells are blue? And I can not believe I'm spending £ 4.50 per kilo of tomatoes. I'll be like Barbara Kingsolver. How do you find time to make your own cheese and reproduce their own heritage turkeys, and write books? I have to work longer hours, less sleep, never watch TV.

Every choice I made was loaded, and every choice I made was wrong. The conversation was circular and chronic mental irritant, and I was not able to close it.

Then I lost my job.

Instantly, was stabbed to anxiety predictable. It was 2008 and that many people lose their jobs. I made a cup of tea and left the back door of our house, and sat on the steps leading to our suburban yard neglected. At the end of the season for red apples balanced by some branches of our tree. I should really take before the squirrels get them. I can make applesauce. I can make the chutney. Who needs a job when you have an apple? Although I thought that sitting on my steps, I knew it was ridiculous. A job is more valuable than an apple tree. People can not live in the apple juice, and do not even like hot sauce.

Yet, a question raised at the forefront of my mind. Where is the sweet spot between the bid and do it? What is the supermarket cheaper and better? And where we are wrong, our tastes and habits and standards of corruption? I did not want an answer, but of ideology or politics, or tradition, or conventional. I wanted to see the answer to your question empirically, taking into account the requirements - time and direction, quality and awareness, the health budget and -. Of everyday family life

And so the months and years ahead, I have some chickens, which I loved, and some ducks, which he hated, and some turkeys are slaughtered. I cured bacon and salmon, tomato sauce, croissants. I planted potatoes, melons and squash. At the height - or maybe it was the end - of my home experience, who were lacto-fermented pickles on the kitchen counter and seven varieties of jam in the pantry, and wormwood and cheese Taleggio matured space behind my bedroom closet. I was overwhelmed and a bit of confusion, but I had my answers.

peanut butter

Home

peanut butter floor is knotted, rich, intense peanuts. The mass-market brands were sweet and homogenized. I always like store-bought peanut butter, but at home is better the next time you have seven minutes to spare.

to do or buy?

Do it.

complications

rare.

cost comparison

for 240g of peanut butter made at home is 80% of Sun-Pat.



or if there -. 480 g is enough to fill a jam jar of good size

450g unsalted roasted peanuts, shell and skin

2 tablespoons oil (preferably peanut)

Sal

Put the peanuts and oil in a food processor or blender and grind until a smooth paste. Add more oil if necessary to lose weight. Make this peanut butter a little thinner than you think it should be, because it will significantly strengthen the fridge.

Season with salt to taste, and stored in a sterilized jar in the refrigerator for several months.

daily bread

For a moment I felt I had to make bread and butter of all - it was not useless and lazy. I do not want my husband to buy bread, even if we ran, and I was insolent when it did. But I also remember that the insolent when they were short of bread - I felt like I was tired of putting on the apron. I think everyone in my family is happy that I stopped using this particular hair shirt. Homemade bread is better, but still, it's just bread.

I do this once a week, sometimes twice. He has a hard crust, the fibrous texture of bread peasant, but baked in a mold, which makes the final product more easily sliced ??for sandwiches. Although I have changed significantly, the recipe is from Sam and Sam Clark's book Moro.





to do or buy?

Do it.

complications

Can mix? You can make this bread.

Cost Comparison

house less than 60 pence per stem, including the fuel needed to heat the oven. A loaf of bread of 450 grams Bread made by my local bakery costs £ 3.50.

Makes two loaves.

neutral vegetable oil, for greasing

1 teaspoon instant yeast

820ml buttermilk or yogurt with water, room temperature

660g wheat flour

210g flour

50 g flaxseed (optional)

teaspoon salt
Coffee 4

Oil

23cm x 12cm in two metal bar boxes. In a large bowl, combine the yeast, buttermilk, flour, seeds (if using) and salt. Scrape the batter into the loaf pans. Cover each with a clean, damp cloth, tea and let stand for about two hours until the dough has reached the level of the tops of pans. Sometimes it rises very high mass and sticks to the towel, just do the best we can. If this scenario bothers you, cover with lightly oiled plastic wrap in place.

Preheat oven to 230C/450F/gas mark 8. Remove the towel or plastic wrap and bake the loaves for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, tip the pan from the kitchen, return to oven and bake directly on the grill for 15 minutes. Bread is done when you are rich in color and sounds hollow when tapped.

Generally, you must leave the bread to cool before cutting, but the heel hot, crusty bread is too delicious to give up, especially with the butter. Store in a paper bag for a week. For storage, wrap and freeze over.

baked beans

After my grandmother died, I inherited his pot of beans, and bulging recipe file. During an attack of nostalgia a few years ago, I had the recipe for beans. I sighed. Here it is verbatim: "Wiener pot of beans: 2 cans a pound of pork and beans, dry mix 1 envelope onion soup, tomato sauce ? cup, ¼ cup of water, 2T brown sugar, 1 T mustard 10 frankfurters (sliced). "

can not empty a packet mix of onion soup in a recipe without servility, just so I can not mention the word "sausage bean pot" without a smile is a lack of respect. I used the pot of beans steadily since the death of my grandmother, but I use my own recipe. There is nothing wrong with canned beans, but do not have the personality how do you two. You also need to eat frozen salted pork, skin and all. As the cream that melts on the tongue.

to do or buy?

it.

stabbed harder than opening a box.

Cost Comparison
house around 60 pence per 240 g of cooked beans. A 415g box of Heinz beans costs around 70p.

Find best price for : --Simon----Jennifer----Arlene--