Provision

The other night, as I turned and turned the handle of my neighbour's food mill to remove skins and seeds from a second batch of tomato sauce, C asked me if this chore gives me satisfaction. Well, actually he asked if I find making tomato sauce more satisfying than ironing, to which the answer is a whole-hearted shit yeah, but as there's very little I like less than ironing, this answer seemed too easy. And it's a fair question, why I'm spending days and nights making things I can easily buy at the supermarket. (In the last couple of weeks I've also made jam and baked pumpkins and then frozen them to make soup later.)

One answer is yes, I get satisfaction from making healthy food for my family. I like knowing what goes in to what we eat, and having control over this. I like that we hardly eat any processed food, I like minimizing the sugar and salt content of what I make, I like using local, organic ingredients whenever I can. I like that my kids are interested in cooking, I like teaching them healthy eating habits, I like it when they enthusiastically like something I've made.

Another answer is that having planted the plants, I can't bear to waste the fruit.

It's the same for the walnut tree. I compulsively picked up every fallen walnut last year, we spent several long nights cracking them open... and now I'm determined to eat them. Not just the nuts, but the oil we had pressed from them, and the flour that was left behind from the pressing. Six kilos of it.

We need to hurry up - this year's crop started falling yesterday.

So today I made a walnut slice.

Cakes and biscuits are actually a bit of a dilemma for me. I am against the regular eating thereof (and especially of store-bought versions) - which means we are the house that offers fruit and air-popped popped corn for afternoon tea, instead of lollies, biscuits and ice creams like all the other houses. But I like making the occasional sweet thing for the kids, because they love them so much. And, well, I'd like to be remembered as a nice mum who provided yummy treats. So what I do is adjust recipes to make them a bit less bad, and so justify winning my children's hearts by feeding them sugar and fat.

But really, walnuts. Packed full of protein and omega 3. And this recipe has lots of eggs, also good. And do you know you can reduce the amount of sugar in cake recipes by one-third, and no-one ever notices? Plus I use stone-ground flour (lower GI!) and I would cut it with wholemeal flour, only I have that walnut flour to use up, so I used it instead. So really, it's even kind of healthy! (We'll just ignore the margarine and chocolate. Although I did use fat-reduced margarine, so it's not as bad as it could be).

Anyway, this slice is DELICIOUS, and definitely worth making even if you don't have loads of walnuts to use up. Here's the original recipe - as mentioned I reduced the sugar by one-third and used reduced-fat margarine for the topping. I also suggest adding more cinnamon if you use wholemeal flour.

Base:
1 1/4 cups self-raising flour
1/2 cup margarine
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup chopped walnuts (or pecans)

Rub flour, margarine, sugar and cinnamon until mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add nuts. Press into 9x12" ungreased pan, cook for 10 min at 180 degrees C.

Topping:
30g dark chocolate
1/4 cup margarine
3 eggs
1 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla
2 tablespoons water

Melt chocolate and margarine. Beat other ingredients, add melted chocolate/margarine, pour onto base. Cook for 20 mins at 180 degrees C, or until topping has set.

Try not to eat it all at once.