Show Notes Episode #8

Welcome back for the final episode in Series #1 of My Open Kitchen. We have loved every minute of our podcasting adventure so far and really really want to thank you all for supportive and encouraging this project of ours. We promise there is LOADS more goodness in store in Series #2, as well as a few new and super-exciting additions to the podcast.

But for now, we hope you enjoy this episode, it features a great chat with lovely Matt of Grown and Gathered fame, loads of good things to listen to, share, cook, do and make, plus a little ‘montage’ of our favourite moments from Series 1. And as always, everything we talk about and refer to in the podcast can be found, linked in, below. So happy reading and again THANK YOU for all your support. Skye and Sophie xxxxxxx

Grown and Gathered 

Matt and Lentil of Grown & Gathered are real heroes of ours here at My Open Kitchen. Take a look at their website and blog and now – their newly released book – and you’ll instantly see what we mean. So we were very VERY excited to have the chance to chat with Matt just this week, as you will hear you couldn’t get a more laid back bloke than Matt, who’s also equally passionate about uncomplicated simple living, food and trading skills and produce.

This week’s goodies were so super tasty and sugarless (yes!) and what’s more they were cooked by out producer Pat’s daughter Eden. Thank you Eden for sharing your delicious cookies! #cookiesandkindness

Orange, cashew and maple biscuits

1 vanilla bean pod or 1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup of cashew butter*
1 cup of gluten free plain flour
1/2 cup of rice flour
Finely grated rind of one orange
1 egg
1/3 cup of the maple syrup coating (see below)
a good pinch of salt

syrup coating
1 cup of fresh orange juice
1/3 cup rice malt syrup
1 vanilla pod
1 tablespoon of orange blossom water
1/3 cup maaple syrup

Preheat oven to 160C fan forced or 180C normal oven. First make the syrup coating – combine Orange juice, rice malt syrup, split vanilla pod, maple syrup and orange blossom water in saucepan and reduce by 1/2 on slow simmer for about 20 minutes. Then allow to cool slightly. Mix all other ingredients into a separate bowl. Allow syrup to cool to room temperature then slowly add to dry ingredients to form a slightly wet biscuit dough (remember to save some syrup for the end).

Roll tablespoon size balls from mixture flatten a little bit and place on baking paper lined biscuit tray. Bake for 10 – 15 minutes or until you can smell the cookies (That’s the best time to get them out!). Place on cooling rack over a rectangle biscuit tray and pour over syrup coating the biscuits while they are still a bit hot. Allow to cool and enjoy!

*you can make your own cashew but in the blender with raw cashews or unsalted roasted ones. + vegans can use an egg alternative like Chia seeds or flax seeds to help bind.

Skye’s Top 5

1.#cookiesandkindness – My love for anything Julia Childs, helped me to discover this one and I can’t think of a more relevant hashtag given the crazy, soul searching week that was just thrust upon us and American’s in particular. #cookiesandkindness was dreamt up by Dorie Greenspan as she releases her 12th cookbook, Dorie’s Cookies. It’s a community building campaign in which she wishes everyone to experience more joy through sharing and giving of cookies. The best! The podcast that helped me discover this new hastag is here – it also is the really goodie. 

2.The Food Podcast by Lindsay Cameron Wilson is a podcast I have binged listened to in the last week. It’s like a movie in a podcast. It’s so well put together with thoughtful background music, that soulfully allows for a narrative to be weaved through the story.  She speaks around topics like – handwriting letters, “if you really want to connect with somebody, write them a letter”, and food rituals which we all have are are totally worth celebrating.

3.An App called Tiny Scanner has changed my life. It’s free and so so so easy to use. Just take a pic of your document, it’s reproduced on your phone in high-res like a scanner and send off to your desired party.

4. Positive Farming Footprints on Facebook curated by previous RIRDC Rural Women of the Year Pip Job, a priceless asset to rural Australia. This page should be in your favourites bar (it’s in mine) – it’s a great resource for articles that are relevant to the modern day Australian farmer, including tips on networking, to productivity video’s and articles on Men’s mental health.

5.The Picky Eater Challenge podcast. I have a picky eater at home, he’s only 2 but he makes ‘eating’ a bit of a concerning experience sometimes. This is a podcast series born from the Family Food Summit and it’s given me the right dose of inspiration to overhaul the kids diets and persist with new foods. Bu I was lost in listening to this. It took me back to my own childhood dinner table, where spaghetti was often thrown at the walls, and broccoli hidden in the drawers and we were made to sit until we had finished a meal – and appreciate it all, and the wonderfulness that those meals have played in my own love of bringing people together around the table.

Picture credit: The Food Podcast, By Lindsay Cameron Wilson

Sophie’s Top 5

1. The Fresh Air Podcast – popular culture and arts with an intelligent twist. One of the best podcasts out there, I particularly loved the recent, and very scary episode on the Twitter Paradox.

2. The Food Podcast – this podcast speaks so clearly to me about my love of food, storytelling, community and a host Lindsay Cameron Wilson does it all just beautifully. I LOVE THIS PODCAST!

3. Jane the Virgin – this is complete fluttery but I am on a bit of a series binge with this show at the moment and just loving it. Funny, tongue-in-cheek, this adapted telenovela is very sweet at the same time, it’s a nice bit of escapism!

4. ‘Boss Up’ playlist on Spotify via Design Sponge – download this podcast if you need a bit of a boost and you will be cruising around like a total boss. Especially loving listening to Good as Hell by Lizzy. How can you not feel good after blasting this one up loud!

5. Deep Winter Agrarians – an Australian Facebook group that’s all about information sharing, growing, sharing and great gatherings. Am really hoping to get to one of their events next year.