Despite not actually being pregnant (yet, insha'Allah) i feel like i am in nesting mode. Either that, or Spring cleaning (yey!). But i am cleaning, scrubbing, organising, sorting, and rearranging like crazy over here! I even doused the house in chemicals one evening and boy was i amazed at the difference it made, my bathroom looks almost brand new (although, brand new in the 80s when it was probably fitted). That's the first time ive used nasty chemicals in my house in 6 years. And also the last time insha'Allah for another 6 years! My chest was tight and irritable the next day and im sure it was due to the Cillit Bang.
The other day me and D emptied out our baking cuboard, scrubbed it clean and put everything back in a little more neatly. It often gets a little messy due to all the little packs of this and jars of that. Fortunately very few things had gone out of date, and there was only one thing in there which i had forgotten about (a bar of baking chocolate). I'm always keeping on top of sell by or use by dates as i hate food waste with a passion and hate hoarding food. So, that photo up there, that's the before. Now it looks like this...
I buy organic wholegrain flour and keep the plain flour in the big flour jar on the top shelf and self raising in the coffee jar next to it. That's a flour shaker in front of them which i use to cover the worktop when I'm rolling out dough or pastry. I only ever buy Billingtons sugar because its unrefined, organic and fair-trade, but i had to buy silverspoon preservative sugar and pectin as its all i could get hold of (for jam making). The Billingtons is in the sugar jar - that's caster sugar for baking - we use demerara or muscovado for everything else. I love brown sugar, it reminds me of being a kid and the very rare occasions that we would sit in a cafe and eat the sugar out of the little paper sachets, one after the other. Then there's Allinsons Yeast which i use for making bread and pizza bases.
Below is the porridge and tea. We love porridge and always buy a huge bag of it as we eat it most mornings. Those porridge sachets you can buy are a waste of money and packed with so many alien ingredients, so we've always stuck to basics. How do you eat your porridge? Our current favourite is with banana, honey and sultanas mixed in.
We drink Clipper tea - the packaging is beautiful and all of their teas are fair-trade. Some are organic too. I occasionally have Rooibos or Earl Grey for a change during the day, but love a nice hot traditional tea in the morning or evening. The biscuits jar is for homemade biscuits only (and has been empty for a few months, eeek!)
On the top shelf of the other side of the cuboard are the baking ingredients which don't get used too often. Delicious (but mindbendingly unhealthy) traditional Lyles Golden Syrup and Treacle. We always had a tin of Lyles Golden Syrup in the cuboard at home when i was little (probably the same tin for the whole of my childhood, im sure it even had rust on the edges!) and i loved to dip my finger in it or have golden syrup sandwiches. Oh gosh, so yummy. Or golden syrup on toast. Oh dear, i think i may go and make some in a moment.... Agave nectar is of course a healthier option - or is it? It is one of those fads that many people have hooked onto, thinking that its a healthy alternative to sugar. Well reports are saying otherwise. I bought it to bake cakes for a friend who is allergic to sugar.
Below that is our toast toppings and treats shelf. We love nutella and peanut butter on toast, and the honey is used for tea, toast, porridge, cakes, muesli, fruit, yoghurt or just for eating straight off the spoon. We are currently eating Leicestershire honey from my mums friend who keeps bee hives. Its the nicest honey ive ever tasted. This current tub tastes minty, its so delicious. We buy WholeEarth crunchy organic peanut butter because it is just so full of flavour, and only contains peanuts, oil and salt. If you eat p.b regularly then i think you should try it - you'l never buy anything else!
The last thing i did was to sellotape our icing thingie onto the inside cuboard door with all the nozzles inside, so that we don't lose any and so that i know which attachment is for which effect.
And so now i really should bake a little something, i haven't tried anything new for a few weeks and the mango and coconut cake i made last week was particularly unremarkable. I shall share any baking expeditions with you when they happen insha'Allah!
1 little messages:
It's always so much fun to see what other people keep in their cupboards...I don't know why. Some of your items are foreign to me...such as agave nectar. Funny, I photographed some agave the other day that were in full bloom. Tequila is made from agave also, I believe.
I think what you call porridge we call oatmeal, or anyway, I eat oatmeal for my porridge...I like it very thick, with dried cranberries, some wheatgerm sprinkled on top, and some brown sugar, and a bit of milk too. In the good old days I also melted some butter in it as well, but no more.
Have you tried almond butter instead of peanut butter? Both are good for us but I've developed a taste for almond butter, no preservatives, crunchy style, from Trader Joe's. It has to be kept refrigerated though, once opened.
Tea - Decaf Earl Grey is what I drink most; also first thing in the morning, a big cup of hot green tea also decaf, no sugar or milk in that, but I do add sugar and milk to the Earl Grey.
I'll be watching for whatever you will be baking!
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