Swedish Knackebrot or Crispbread

Oh, these ARE yummy.

We love these crackers so much that I bake them every 4-5 days to have a constant supply.  My husband drinks green tea during the day, these crackers go perfectly with it.  Somehow sweet things don’t seem to fit in with green tea, only black tea or coffee.  Funny.

We used to buy Dr Karg’s cripbread.  Oh, they are very nice, but the speed they seem to disappear here would call for a lotto win to say the least.

I searched on the web to find a suitable recipe so I could make them myself for much less cost.

These were my inspirations:

this is good http://www.itsnotabouttherecipeblog.com/2011/04/seedy-crisp-crackers.html

but this was the recipe I started out with: http://everydaylund.tumblr.com/post/17201255219/addicted-to-knackebrod-crispbread-bake-your-own

I’ve made a few changes along the way, like I don’t use baking powder, and I soak the flax seed for at least 2 hours to prevent the oil in the seed go bad during baking (I was reading about this in a book about the good and bad oils).

Sometimes I soak the flax together with the rolled oats (as per Sally Fallon’s advice).  Sometimes they soak overnight, and that is fine, too.

Also, I like to use wholemeal rye flour instead of wheat.

Recipe - Swedish Knackebrot or Crispbread

This recipe is enough for 2 or 3 oven trays depending on the size of the tray.

Ingredients

• 120 g Rye flour
• 120 g Rolled oats
• 100 g Sunflower seeds
• 50 g Sesame seeds
• 50 g Flax seeds
• 1/2 tsp Salt
• 2 Tbsp Olive Oil
• 500 ml Water or whey

Directions

1. Soak flaxseed in half the liquid for 2 hours.

I like to use whey or the juice of sauerkraut when we have it.

The seeds become gelatinous; the soaked up liquid will prevent the oil to get ruined during cooking.

2. Add the rolled oats and the rest of the liquid to soak for another half hour.

3. Turn oven on 170 celsius or 150 if fan-forced

4. Mix in the rest of the ingredients.

The batter should look and feel a bit runny but not too runny.  It should slide off the spatula but not in a hurry.  It shouldn't run off.  Sorry, I can't explain this better, maybe a photo will help:

5. Smear the batter 3mm thin onto paper covering the oven tray.  I actually find it easier to smear the batter onto paper whilst the paper is on the table, then I slide it onto the tray.

It's a bit fiddly, this smearing.  I like the crackers thin, so I try to make sure the batter completely covers the paper but it's not thick:

6. Put in the oven but take it out after 10 minutes and divide into pieces with a knife. Once it's baked it cannot be cut:

I use a large chopping knife and press down with it to make slices

7. Bake for about 20 or 30 more minutes, but check regularly.

They need to be crispy all through but not burnt.

If your oven bakes uneven like mine, change and turn the biscuits, remove the baked ones, etc.

They are lovely as they are or with a bit of cheese on top, or for scooping out dips (careful, they brake very easily, your finger might end up in the dip, so use this method in the company of good friends only!)

I want to lose weight. Really.

I am starting my ‘Really Have To Lose Weight Now’ diet program.   It’s nothing fancy actually, and I don’t have to buy anything special.  The only requirement is that I WILL LOSE WEIGHT constantly, a little (or more!) every day.

What I plan to do is to

•      make a green smoothie every day and drink it through the morning
•       no coffee, only green tea or herb tea until midday
•      one protein snack (with only a tiny amount of carb) at around 2pm
•       nothing but herb teas or freshly made vegie juice after 3pm
•       I will go to the pool regularly and bounce on the trampoline too, to keep the lymph moving

It will be waning moon after the 28^th, best time to lose weight.

I am hoping that by documenting it, it will be a bit easier to stick with my resolution.  Really hoping!!

My pressie; the Magimix blender will be helping me with the green smoothie. 

The approximate recipe is:

·        a selection of freshly picked green leaves, as much as I can fit in the blender

·        1 cup sour milk from raw milk or kefir

·        1 raw egg (from our chicken)

·        2 tbsp quality coconut oil

·        1 tbsp unpasteurized honey

·        1 or 2 apples (depending on size)

·        strawberries/blueberries/cherries if available

This was made with my old blender, a Braun combi.

So no baking for a little while I suppose, no gin&tonic, pasta or ice cream…

But, I will gain a bit of self-respect back and at last I can sew some clothes for myself.  Yippee!!

Christmas

Wishing everyone a joyous Christmas,      

and peace and goodwill everywhere!

I am sending here a traditional sweet pastry I made last night.    Enjoy with a cup of tea or coffee!

Beigli, filled with poppy seed and walnut.

Chickens in the heat

The forecast is 36 degrees (celsius) for today.  My chickens really suffer in the heat.

I keep watering the ground around them regularly and put blocks of ice out.  We bought a plastic sandpit, put some water in as someone said chickens do get a bath when it's really hot.  Well, our chickens haven't tried it yet.  They shy away from a shower, too.

An inexpensive sandpit waiting to be used as a chook pool.  It's easy to move into the shade.

I wonder how others cope with such a day, how they keep their chickens cool and comfortable.

One chooky checking out the pool.  Maybe I should demonstrate how to use it...

My edible garden

It's time I write about my edible garden, in which I am trying to incorporate permaculture principles.

This is not my first garden, we'd had one, similar to this, about ten years ago, before we moved away for some years.  

Then, we had to pull up everything and put down a new lawn - what a heartache it was to watch! - so the house could be rented out.  Here are some pictures of my old beautifully productive  garden, towards the end of its first summer season:

we had three white leghorn chickens, they were regularly let out to graze for themselves
here, they are still very young, probably just coming onto lay

herb garden, comfrey and the steps built by my father who was visiting us just then

the pumpkin, ready for picking
we had them grow over an arch

Here are some more pictures about the creation of that no-dig garden.

Hot weather

The forecast was 37 celsius for Thursday.  Thankfully it did not eventuate; the southerly came through very early in the afternoon.

The heat is very hard on the plants and the chickens; they all switch into survival mode and they need some help from us to make it through alive.  Yes, I believe it is that serious.


What I do first of all is I try to provide some shade.

For the plants:

young plants covered during the middle of a hot day

We made some arches from irrigation pipes which are held up by some casually placed bamboo sticks, and over those I draped some old curtain material, held in place by bulldog clips.

Raspberries don't like being in very hot sun, they are more a temperate climate fruit.  They are just kind enough to fruit for us in warmer temperatures provided we help them through when needed.

Freshly planted seedlings can't survive being out in the sun even on a moderately hot summer day.   These are some of my casualties, and it wasn't even a very hot day when I took these photos.  Fortunately they did survive.

   

After the plants are well established they can usually cope better.  Lettuces like buttercrunch and the red type lettuces however, they will always need extra care in the sun.
Watering them weekly with some seaweed solution strengthens them so they have a better chance of recovering.

Tomatoes, cucumber, raspberries I also cover when it's above 32 celsius, they seem to stress or even burn to death otherwise.

I water by hand at the moment, sometimes in the morning sometimes late afternoon.  The irrigation systems I've tried so far just don't seem to work, this is something of a future project for me to learn more about.

For the chooks, well, that will be another post I think - chooks in the heat.

The other day when it was so very hot, luckily I was home all day, and kept checking on them.  I even let the gate open so if they wanted to find a cooler spot anywhere else, they could.

I watered the grounds a couple of times for cooling. put blocks of ice in their water, put frozen water bottles around the run so they could sit next to it if they wanted.  I also switched the hose for mist and left it there propped up for a little while, hoping they might go under it for cooling.  They didn't.  Somehow we survived though.

Funny, how guilty I felt to turn on the air-con inside.  So I saved a lot of electricity, because I didn't, apart from half an hour twice on that day. LOL.  It just seemed not fair, me, sitting inside nice and cool, them, hanging onto their life outside.

In summer I keep different sizes of blocks of ice in the freezer for very hot days.

Also some frozen water bottles to use around the run.

Spring time dog grooming

Well, it's actually summer now, so we are a bit late with doing this.


We decided to give both dogs a haircut once the warm weather has settled in.  It's much more comfortable for them, letting the fresh air reach their skin.  Just like when we wear some airy clothes I suppose, the body cools easier.


Lily was first, we clipped her last week.
We perched her on a table with castors, and I sat down armed with a comb and a pair of blunt pointed but sharp scissors.  She was no trouble at all, mostly just sitting there, letting me do my job.  Really trusting.   Good girl, Lily.  I only needed L. to hold her head when I was trimming around her eyes.

  

I, on the other hand didn't do a very good job.  She looks very "homemade", to say the least, but still, kind of cute.  She felt so good afterwards she couldn't stop frolicking about.


Here are the before and after pictures:

  

Tina's turn was yesterday.  To work on her, I needed L's help from start to finish.  We put Tina on a stable table stepping on the bottom to hold it steady.  Still, the table was shaking and rattling as Tina was so scared poor thing, she was shaking!

Ended up giving her Bach remedies. We usually use this with her when there is a thunderstorm, but it was needed now, too.  Rock rose (for panic) and Rescue Remedy (for strong stress), two drops each in a little water.   Then I just put some in my hand and rub it on her nose.  She calmed down quite a bit within a couple of minutes.  

Tina has a very downy-sort of coat which is very susceptible to matting.  I am sure she was very happy with the result, I cut off all those nasty mats and tangles, stopping the discomfort they'd must have caused her.   When it was all finished, she was jumping with joy that her life was spared!

Here are Tina's before and after pictures:

she looks so much better, I reckon.

and let's see who was watching, from a safe distance, the whole time:

Update on sick chicken

Chooky is recovering well, she is back at the top of the pecking order it seems.

eating watermelon in the heat

Her noisy breathing persisted till day four on the antibiotics.  She picked up her appetite on day two and started laying again on day three! 

We continue to give her the medication once a day, as instructed, until day 21.  That’s a lot of medication, just as well they get some fresh whey or sour milk every day.  Plus, we give her the tablet mashed up in a bit of water and manuka honey.  Yum!  (pity, she doesn’t think so…)

Her eggs have great shells which she didn’t have prior to becoming sick.  I think I read somewhere that honey contained calcium as well.  I’m not sure if it’s true and I’m too busy at the moment to look it up.