Cooking is such a restorative activity. Our family motto has always been, 'When you don't know what to do, just cook'.
So cook, I have.
Summer Garden Casserole with slivers of Triple Brie seen above.
Sooooo yum.
All you do is thinly slice about six tomatoes, a couple of field mushrooms, slice the kernels from some corn cobs, and sliver some of that glorious Australian garlic that is HUGE. Pop it all in alternate layers of tomato, corn, mushrooms, fresh basil and rosemary, and garlic slivers in a quiche dish (3 layers of all that is good), sprinkle with extra virgin olive oil, and bake in a moderate oven until it all collapses and warms through...about 60-75 minutes. Serve with brie, or bocconcini or even croutons on top. Dee-vine.
Cinnamon cookies with cherry ripe centres, seen below.
Summer fruit jam here....
Jam is so easy....just equal parts fruit and sugar and a bit of lemon...
...and home made Prawn toasts here....
%2Bof%2BDSC_2065.JPG)
All up that lot would have cost a pretty penny had we had similar meals out and about. Lets just say this week insourcing on gourmet jam alone saved around $50. Honestly. I saw 'gourmet preserve' at the fancy schmancy fruit market yesterday for $9.99. Ten bucks for jam....puh-leeeze.
Fancy chinese meal? At least $60 saved there.
Fab vege bake thingo? No idea, but anything like that served at a café, is around the $18 a head mark. So lets round that up to $60 as there would have been coffees and such involved there for sure.
And big, fat, delicious cookies? Well last time I looked that were selling for about $3 each. I made 36. So that's around $100 worth of cookies....whaaaaaat??
Someone said to me recently that you can't count the savings if you wouldn't have ever bought that thing anyway. I guess that's true. But by putting a value on the things that I would HAVE to buy if I worked full time and couldn't make them, I get a very clear picture of my value in the home. That's the rub, isn't it. Work = $$$. But if I can stay home and save an equivalent sum of money by insourcing, then I get to have the best of both worlds and so does my family.
What do you think?
