SAHM giveaway

You all know I'm a big fan of freezing so I am thrilled to run a giveaway with the Jody from the Stay At Home Mum website.


SAHM has a fantastic e-book for freezer cooking based on the Once A Month Cooking (OAMC) principle.  Basically you cook like crazy on one day and have a month's worth of meals in your freezer!  Or you can cook over a few days if that's more your style.  Either way, it's a fantastic e-book brimming with freezing tips, info on meal planning as well as lots of delicious recipes suitable for the whole family.

So .... SAHM and FROST BITE have five copies of the e-book up for grabs!

Entering the giveaway is easy: simply write a comment below stating your name, suburb and favourite meal to freeze.

For more information on the SAHM Once-a-month-cooking ebook or to purchase it, click here.

I would also like to point out that Jody is a pioneer here in Australia as there are over 200 OAMC and freezer cookbooks available in the United States.  Well done, Jody!






Terms and conditions:

1. The value of the prize (e-book) is A$9.95 each.  
2. Five copies are available to be be won.
3. The draw will take place at 5pm, Sydney time, on Thursday 7 June 2012.
4. The winners will be chosen by random.org
5. Entry comments are to be typed on this blog only, Facebook comments are not considered.
6. This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook.
7. Entrants are aware that they are providing information to Susan Austin, author of FROST BITE, not to Facebook, and the information will not be used for any purposes other than as an entry in the competition.
8. The winners will be announced on this blog and on Facebook.
9. If the winner can not be contacted within one month of the draw, a second draw will take place.

Wonton soup

Now here's something to ward away those winter sniffles, a delicious and simple Asian-inspired soup with dumplings.  As my mum would say, it'll warm the cockles of your heart!  The recipe looks long, now that I've typed it, but it's dead-set easy and don't be put off by the steps involved.

You can make and freeze both the soup and the dumplings, just don't freeze them together.

And get your kids involved with the dumplings - they love to make them!

Soup
4 cups (1 litre) chicken stock *
3 cups water
1 clove garlic, peeled and thinly sliced
3cm chunk of fresh ginger, peeled and sliced
1.5 tablep (30ml) soy sauce
drizzle of sesame oil


Dumplings
200g chicken mince
3 large spring onions, pale part only, finely chopped
small handful of coriander or basil leaves, chopped
2 teasp soy sauce
1 packet of wonton wrappers **

Later
1 small carrot, peeled and cut into very thin matchsticks (optional)
2-3 button mushrooms, thinly sliced (optional)
1 spring onion, green part thinly sliced for garnish

* use homemade stock or buy a carton from the supermarket.  Please don't use stock cubes.
** wonton wrappers are available in the fridge section of the supermarket, normally near the fresh pasta (ravioli, lasagne sheets etc)



Method - Soup

Place stock, water, garlic and ginger in a stockpot and simmer for 5 mins.  Use a strainer to remove the ginger and garlic leaving just the liquid in the stockpot.  Add soy sauce and sesame oil.


Method - Dumplings

Mix the chicken, spring onions, herbs and soy sauce in a bowl till well combined.

Place a heaped teaspoon of the mixture in the middle of a wonton wrapper.  Dip your finger in a small bowl of water then wet the edge of the wonton wrapper then form the dumpling in any shape you like (just bunch it up if that's easiest).


Method - to finish

Bring soup to the boil then add carrot and mushroom (if using) and dumplings.  Simmer for 6-7 minutes so that the dumplings are cooked.  Use a ladle to place some dumpling in each bowl then pour over some soup.  Garnish with sliced spring onions and serve.


Serves: approx 5-6 people
Makes: approx 24 wontons

Freezing instructions


Freeze: pour the cooled soup into containers and freeze.  Place the dumplings in a ziplock bag and freeze.


Defrost: soup - in the fridge or microwave.  Wontons - no need, just add to the boiling soup while they are still frozen.  Allow an extra 2-3 mins of cooking time.

Huggies New Zealand

I haven't forgotten all the nice people in New Zealand ... I'm also doing a FROST BITE giveaway with Huggies NZ so there are more books up for grabs!

Click here for details on how to enter.  Good luck!

Perfect icecubes

This tip is a bit obscure but you never know who will find it useful....

Today I learned how to make crystal-clear icecubes: start with filtered water, boil it, cool it, boil it, then make icecubes.  Who knew?!??

Click here for fountain of knowledge who shared it on the internet.

Huggies giveaway

Exciting news everyone ... check out Huggies Australia as they are giving away 5 copies of FROST BITE each month for the next three months!  Woohoo!!

Click here for details on how to enter.

Good luck everyone!

White Shirt Day

Did anyone else wear a white shirt today?  It was White Shirt Day, after all.

What a great way to raise awareness of ovarian cancer ... did you know that one woman dies of ovarian cancer every 10 hours, and that's just in Australia.  Shocking.

To learn more about ovarian cancer and White Shirt Day, click here.


(Sorry for the crappy photo, I was waiting for my old school crowd at our not-regular-enough girlie brunch and wanted to take my self portrait really quickly!)

Breakfast burritos

I've seen breakfast burritos on lots of American freezer-cooking websites and I've always wondered ... does anyone in Australia (or other countries) eat breakfast burritos?  Or freeze them?

I'm dying to know.  Tell all!

photo source: here

Freezer cookies

I love finding pretty pictures on Pinterest to reinforce my freezer tips....

Why not make logs of cookie dough and keep them in the freezer?  Then you can simply slice up the log and bake as needed.

Perfect for when you have a cookie craving or when friends pop in.  Or it would make a fabulous gift too!

photo credit: here

Susan's soapbox: johnandpeter canteen

Happy Mothers Day to all the mums out there!

I just want to do a quick shoutout from my soapbox about a great restaurant that deserves  recognition....

A couple of weeks ago Luke asked me where I wanted to go for Mothers Day lunch, so I immediately shot back a list of places that I've been dying to try.  So my lovely husband booked us a table at johnandpeter canteen at the old rail yards known as Carriageworks in Eveleigh (inner Sydney).  I'd seen the pictures and read some reviews and was dying to go there.

Unfortunately I didn't do sufficient homework and we quickly discovered the menu was not ideal for children (maybe someone else's children, but not mine).  My girls don't normally enjoy veal shin with gremolata, snapper with heirloom tomatoes, or salads of celery heart, bottarga (??) and white anchovy.

However the super efficient and friendly maitre d' said they love children in their restaurant and were happy to make a special dish of tagliatelle pasta with a tomato sauce and grated parmesan.  And it was amazing!  I could have eaten two bowls of it!

Any business that is so accommodating and considerate deserves my full endorsement.  Thankyou, johnandpeter!

johnandpeter canteen
245 Wilson Street, Eveleigh
ph 02 8571 9004

Dumplings

Did you know that dumplings freeze really well?

I find that the best dumplings to freeze are those filled with mince meat and lots of flavours added plus a few finely chopped vegetables.

Dumplings are great to have in the freezer because you can boil them, steam them, add them to soup or pan-fry like potstickers or gyoza.

There are plenty of recipes available on the internet or in cookbooks, or you can try the potstickers recipe in FROST BITE (here's a visual from the book if you need proof!):

And if you need help with fancy-pants ways of folding and forming dumplings, then check out this brilliant guide that I found on Pinterest.  There's seven different ways to fold dumplings!  Who'd have thought!!

Photo credit: here

So get into your dumplings!  You won't look back.

WMMC

I had a great day on 28 April as a guest speaker at the Working Mum's Masterclass.  I met lots of great mums, loved the harbourside location in Sydney and heard from some impressive women.  I think Cathy from Howards Storage World and I are twins separated at birth.  I say you can never have too much storage gear!

Here's a photo montage of the afternoon.  Thanks, Penny, for inviting me to speak!

(the You Tube picture above is pretty small and I can't seem to make it any bigger.  

You can watch it on You Tube here if you prefer)

testamonial - Kat

I love to hear feedback from you guys.  Here's a lovely message I received from Kat from Melbourne last week.

If anyone else wants to write a testimonial, here are some questions to get you started.

thanks,
Susan x



"HELLO!


I'm a SAHM, looking to save time and money in the kitchen, so I can spend time with my family (hubby + 1 yr + 4 yr).


As soon as I saw your book, I was googling it everywhere, and had one delivered the next week! 


I have stocked up on freezer bags and containers, and I cannot wait to stock up my pantry to make some meals!  I am so excited.  I would love to do once a month, or once a fortnight cooking, but will start with baby steps.


Thanks to your book and a few other Facebook pages, I feel like I am just discovering my capabilities in the kitchen.  Alot of the recipes in the book have onion or leek - which my husband does not like :( 


Also, as I sat here today, wondering what to make for lunch I hear my husband ask me the same question .... and THEN ... I look on Facebook and see your post about focaccia/pizza dough  So, I jumped up, grabbed my 4yr (who LOVES cooking) and we made the dough.  Gosh... was it an impatient wait for it to rise!  We made 2 pizzas, 2 focaccias, cheese balls, and I even got experimental and mixed a bit with cinnamon sugar and sultanas ... kids and hubby LOVED them.:)


I am happy for you to publish all, some or none of my response.


Kat"

Frozen yoghurt dots

I love this idea I saw on The Kitchn, but it's not really their idea, they found it on a site called Shutterbean.  I love all this sharing, especially when credit is properly given to the original source.

They're little buttons of frozen yoghurt - don't they look delicious?  And just a little bit cute and pretty too!

Click here for instructions on how to make them.

Young person's freezer

Does your freezer look like this?

photo credit: here

I've decided this is what mine would look like in an alternate universe.  My real-life freezer is much more boring with way too much bread and no alcohol to be seen....