Saturday Sandwich 54, 55 & 56: Sugar, Sprinkles and Fluffernutter Sandwiches

Another trio of sandwiches this week. All sweet sandwiches made with white bread. We had to buy a second loaf of white bread to make them because we don't often buy white bread and the kids had gone mad and eaten it all before Saturday came round.

First up - Sugar Sandwich

As you'd expect it's a sandwich made up of bread and butter filled with sugar. My Mum says she ate these a lot as a kid because it was a cheap sandwich filling. Leigh would love us being poor like that. :D

The adult contingent of the house weren't impressed with these but Leigh loved them. It was just like eating sweet bread and butter. Not really a sandwich at all.

Ratings: JD - 0, Emma - 1, Leigh - 4, Erin - Did not try

Secondly - Sprinkles Sandwich

Same as above. Make bread and butter then add a layer of sprinkles.

This was worse than the sugar sandwich. It was like eating gritty bread and butter. The only good thing about eating this sandwich is that now we don't have to eat it again. Sprinkles have their place but in a sandwich isn't it.

Ratings: JD - 0, Emma - 0, Leigh - 2, Erin - Did not try

Thirdly - Fluffernutter Sandwich

This sandwich comprises of the American sensation marshmallow fluff sandwiched together with peanut butter.

This sandwich was better. It's not as good as a peanut butter and jam/jelly sandwich but the sweetness of the marshmallow fluff does go well with peanut butter. Marshmallow fluff is horribly sickly on it's own and I usually have quite a sweet tooth. It was nice to eat this sandwich after the first two at least. :)

Ratings: JD - 3, Emma - 2, Leigh & Erin - Did not try.

It seems we much prefer savoury sandwiches after this week's efforts. We're both looking forward to having a savoury one next week. :D

Coming up next Saturday - The Dagwood Sandwich

Community Clean-Up Day

Last Saturday (March 21st) was our local Community Clean-Up Day and Erin suggested we go out and help by picking up litter in our nearby park.

 We set out at about 10am to pick litter. Erin was wearing a rubber glove and armed with a bin bag to fill.

 I thought our area was quite tidy but on our way to the park we picked up plenty of rubbish we wouldn't normally spot without looking. Lots of litter gets stuck in hedges by the side of the road. By the time we reached the park our bags were almost half full.

 JD getting stuck in.

 Me finding yet another can of Monster. The majority of the litter was drink cans, either lager or energy drinks mostly.

 Erin ran off to claim this bounty because we were competing to see who could collect the most rubbish. (It was me \o/)

When we'd finished Erin enjoyed a well-earned 15 minutes in the park.

Picking up litter was quite satisfying. It was nice to feel like we were helping our community by making it look nicer with less rubbish. JD commented that it was more enjoyable than he thought it was going to be. We filled up two and a half bin bags in about 40 minutes. We had to scout about for the rubbish though, mostly it was under hedges and undergrowth or blown into a corner.

Erin wants to do it again but with a litter grabber. I felt proud of her for suggesting it and pleased she enjoyed picking up the litter. She almost spoiled it on the way home by complaining a lot about having to walk back. Haha. :D

Saturday Sandwich 53: Adana Kebab

This Turkish kebab comes from the city Adana in Southern Turkey and looks delicious. :D

Here's a recipe if you want to try one yourself --> http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2014/08/adana-kebab-turkish-ground-lamb-kebab-recipe.html

These were pretty easy to make. The lamb mince is mixed with a red pepper, onion, garlic and parsley and shaped into small logs. They're meant to be BBQ'd but we fried ours instead.

 Toasted pittas are easy to open up so you can fill them with the meat logs, grilled vegetables and yoghurt.

The lamb logs (the recipe used this word so I'm also using it due to a lack of a better word) looked really appetising with flecks of pepper, onion and parsley through them. They tasted delicious too, very garlicky thanks to 4 cloves of garlic chopped up inside. I could feel the texture of the soft grilled vegetables but they didn't seem to add much taste to the kebab. It was really delicious and I'd love to try an Adana kebab again next time we have a barbecue.

Ratings: JD - 4, Emma - 4

Coming next Saturday - A Trio of Sweet Sandwiches

Making Our Own Yoghurt

About a week ago JD found an Easiyo Yoghurt maker in a charity shop for £5 (usually £15). Flavoured yoghurt is one of my favourite snack foods and we also have it on our muesli for breakfast sometimes.

With an Easiyo yoghurt maker you can buy the sachets to make yoghurt by just adding water or you can make yoghurt by mixing a tiny bit of bought yoghurt to milk. We tried the sachet route and it made nice thick greek yoghurt but at £3 a time it's more than we wanted to pay.

Next we tried making yoghurt by mixing yoghurt and milk but the yoghurt it made was far too runny.

Third time lucky we tried adding powdered milk to the recipe to thicken up the yoghurt and it worked!

 Ingredients Assemble!

Pour 1 litre of uht milk into the plastic container and add 1 tablespoon of live culture yoghurt. Add 2-3 tablespoons of powered milk to thicken it if you want to.

Replace the lid and shake until it's all really mixed together.

Fill the Easiyo container with boiling water up to the fill line and put the smaller container inside.

Leave for 8-12 hours and then refrigerate the smaller container of yoghurt for an hour or two to have cold yohurt.

Then you can enjoy your yoghurt anyway you like. I've got a tablespoon of lime curd to mix into it in the picture and it was delicious.

Making the yoghurt this way costs about £1.35 for a litre of yoghurt which is pretty good I think.

Saturday Sandwich 52: Caprese Panino

Today's sandwich is from Capri and is usually eaten in salad form using the same three main ingredients of mozzarella, basil and tomato.

Ingredients: (Might have given them away a bit above, oops!)

Mozzarella
Basil
Tomato
Ciabatta roll
Black pepper
Olive oil

Split the bread roll and brush with olive oil Layer up the filling and sprinkle with black pepper. Brush oil on the top of the sandwich too.

 Grill until the top is crispy and the mozzarella has melted a bit.

The grilled ciabatta was a lovely texture. The tomato and mozzarella went really well together, they're obviously a classic combination. We both enjoyed the sandwich but wouldn't make it again. It looks good with bright colours but the flavour is a bit lacking something. The smell of fresh basil is amazing but the taste is disappointing

Ratings: JD - 2, Emma - 3

Saturday Sandwich 51: Kookoo Sabzi Wrap

Kookoo is an Iranian omelet and Sabzi means herbs. Herbs are used a lot in Iranian cuisine for taste and for their health-giving properties.

Ingredients: eggs, wraps, parsley, dill, coriander, spring onions, salt & pepper.

We made two wraps to our usual recipe --> http://afamilyagainsttheflow.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/making-wraps.html

Then chopped up the herbs and spring onions.

 Then we made an omelet with the herbs as a filling.

 Place the omelet in the wrap with some cucumber and a dash of hot sauce.

 I was disappointed by this one. The omelet was quite bland and was only perked up a bit by the hot sauce. It would've been better with some feta cheese maybe. It was still nice to eat a warm omelet in a warm wrap. JD said it was alright but he wouldn't have it again. Fine praise indeed. :D

 Ratings: JD - 2, Emma - 1

Coming Up Next Saturday - Caprese Panino