FrillyFrugalFriday - reprise

I've been a bit slack here haven't I?

I'm not tracking my expenses but I do know what we're spending and it's not alot.  In fact, I'm really proud of the ways we've managed to save ourselves money and improve the quality of what we do..

Farmgate Trail - this is a monthly expedition for us, and although it does take about 3 -4 hour round trip we do make it family time.  The drive is enjoyable and it's wonderful to get 'close to your food' and know where it's coming from.  The fact that it's fresher, lasts longer and is cheaper than local fruit/vege shops and supermarkets makes it all the better.  We also have a much better understanding of seasonal produce.


Being Seasonal
By doing the farmgate trail we've become a lot more savvy about not only understanding what's in season but making the best of seasonal produce.  I've learned to preserve, I've challenged myself to use produce in new ways, it's cheaper when in season obviously and so there's a money saving.  Obviously we were so inspired we decided to dig out a large patch of garden and erect a rotating vegetable garden.  We did winter/autumn one and now we have our seedlings almost ready to transplant for our spring/summer garden. 


Buying in bulk
We buy our meat from the abbatoir whilst on our farmgate trail once a month and this is an enormous saving, we were lucky enough to obtain a 580l upright freezer, and I'm positive the cost of running this is nothing like the savings we make... also I can stock up on bread when on special, this in itself is a huge saving.


Meal Planning
I thought I was going to be SO bored and uninspired but in fact I'm finding it more inspiring because I plan a month ahead.  Prior to our farmgate trail I plan the meals for the month plus a few extras.  I scour my Magazines (so addicted to those SFI's, Recipes+ etc!) and get my inspiration from those and I put the recipes into my meal plan so I'm trying new things on a constant basis.  I can't imagine NOT Meal planning now.  And the best part is getting to the end of the month and having next to no wastage!  It's brilliant.  I also try and be flexible at times when I find a new recipe that I "have" to try...


Bills
Well I could do a bit better in this department and although I did cut down my electricity bill this winter by $200 - and given electricity prices have gone up, and I didn't use the dryer at all this winter - it was still $1,200! eeek.  So we've invested in a gas heater recently and I think that will be a huge difference for us next winter.  Started turning more off and the girls are weaned off their lamps to sleep by at night and we're just keeping the hall light on for everyone.  Hopefully down the track we can have one of those plug-in night light things at the wall...  We've also switched every globe to energy efficient.

Phone and internet - well I think we'd be hard pressed to do better than we are there apart from giving up cable TV and I'm not willing to do that, as at this point of our lives it's really our one source of entertainment for all of us.  We don't really go out to the movies etc so I feel it's easy to justify.

Gas, well I think this is going to go up obviously with the gas heater but I think I'll be looking at changing our energy providers again this coming year with the new increases that are happening.  Stay tuned.

Mobile phone - well I've taken myself off a cap pre-paid and now I'm on a 365 plan, I'm hoping that is better use of money.

So that's it in a nutshell! 
What's your best tip for saving money on bills?  Please tell me as I'd love to know!! xx

A few pleasant surprises this farmgate trip

I look forward to our monthly farmgate trails - after doing this for two years it feels like we're visiting friends when we see everyone at M & A butchery at Wilberforce (a family business now passed down from the Dad to identical twin sons!) and then across to Riverview produce, another family who sell direct from the farm - you can see more about both here.

We went to the butcher first and I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw SALE signs at the front - because seriously, this meat that doesn't travel more than 200 metres (It's the only remaining Sydney butchery that has it's own abbatoir) is the best value for money out there - but yes there was a sale going on.

My monthly meat came to a whopping $130.  This included 2 whole chickens, big leg of boneless pork shoulder, 3 large pork chops (to mince) 2kg lamb forequarter chops (to mince) 3kg topside beef mince, 2 kg beef sausages, 1 rack of american style pork ribs, 1 pork belly, 2 kg yearling blade steak, 1 kg bacon.  Crazy right?

Then we got another surprise happening upon this sign:

I'm a sucker for a street vendor , especially if you're getting it direct from a farmer.  Especially if it's produce.. and even better for me, honey (I adore honey!).

And honey there was!

 Creamed honey and honey with honeycomb!  Beautiful isn't it?

$8 for the creamed honey and honey with honeycomb and $10 for a litre of regular honey - all from a family farm 10 minutes away - all whitebox honey too (delicious!).  I just couldn't refuse - and took one of each.  If you are interested - pop onto Castlereagh Road, Richmond and pass Crowleys Lane and the orange and honey bloke will be there if the weather isn't bad and it's the weekend.


View Larger Map

Then we went to Riverside produce to get our veges and eggs - and another surprise!  Daniel (the farmer's son who is 5) couldn't wait to show us the newest additions to his family - Goats!

Aren't they cute?  I love goats - can't explain why.. just do.

Daniel also showed us his chooks and bunnies too!

After the farm, popped by the local salvos and picked up some copper baking tins for $1 a piece too.  I love old bakeware....

Great day, and the bonus is I have all the inspirational produce to cook now!  Hooray for farmgate!

Today's Farmgate Trail Reconaissance.

Well after a later start than intended (well ok, only by 45 minutes) we set off solo on our farmgate trail expedition.

First was Riverview - Got some gorgeous baby eggplant today for $2 a kilo - which I made into Babaganouj dip this afternoon for family gathering. Other bargains of the day was enormous bunch of silverbeet for 50c and huge plant of sage for .75c. Truss Cherry tomatoes $2 a kg. 2 weeks' fruit, veg and eggs + small box of offerings for my sister and grandmother cost a grand total of $57.10 - that's 2 big boxes for us and 2 small boxes for Nan and Becky. (Pictured in back of car here)

Looks can be deceiving. From the outside it just looks like an ordinary tin shed - and inside you will find trestle tables in a cool room with prices written on the wall in various whiteboard marker colours - the quality is fantastic.

Next we were off to Wiberforce to M&A Butchery stocked up both for our family meals but our annual Australia Day BBQ.

Day-to-day inventory: 2kg blade steak $12, 1kg topside mince $6.80, 1.2kg lamb leg $8.60, 500gr carved smoked ham (for sambos) $3.90, 600g tomato, garlic and rocket sausages $4.10, 1.5kg Chicken Wings $4.25, 2 smoked chorizo sausages $2.40

Aussie Day BBQ: 1kg thin sausages $5.80, 2kg Pork Ribs $18, 2.2kg T-bone steaks $23.25, 1.5kg chicken wings $4.25

The butchery has an abbatoir attached and appears on the side of paddock road.

All the Aussie Day BBQ stuff was deposited at friends' house - she has an un-used chest freezer in her garage - excellent! That is a must-invest-for-us this year.

Another successful trip! Love the farmgate trail!

Lunchbox Legends: Pear, raspberry and oat muffins

Hello!

How was your weekend?  Ours was party-party-part-y!  This is the life of social young frills.  We did a quick farmgate run on Saturday which was well overdue.  I love the farmgate run, I always return with feelings of wholesomeness and inspiration - seeing where your food comes from does that.. for me anyways.

So it's off to school again today and I had some frozen raspberries which did need using up, so I thought I'd throw together some lunchbox muffins.  Only 10 minutes to get into the oven and in 1 hour they are ready to stash in the freezer.

Enjoy these and here's to a fab week OK?


Ingredients:
1 cup rolled oats
1 cup buttermilk*
1/2 cup caster sugar
1 egg
1/3 cup canola oil
1 1/4 cups self raising flour
1 pear, peeled, cored and diced
1/4 cup raspberries


Method:
Preheat oven to 190 degrees c
In a mixing bowl add the buttermilk to rolled oats, stir well and allow to sit for 5 minutes

 Add sugar, egg, oil, flour and stir until well combined, about 20 strokes.

Lastly add pear and raspberry and stir to combine about 5 strokes.

Spoon into muffin papers in muffin pan.

Bake for 12-15 minutes until golden brown on top.

Remove and cool.  Freeze in airtight container for up to 3 months.

Defrost 1 at a time for 20secs on high in the microwave before packing in lunchbox!

From leftovers to luscious! Shepherds Pie

The other weekend when I was in Cairns visiting family I left hubby with next to no food - so I sent him an email with what we needed from the farmgate and he took the frills.  Everything I thought had gone to plan until he told me that I had sent the list to his work address, and by the time he got it he was home - so he just winged it.  

Well it wasn't disastrous but it wasn't his finest moment either as they had run out of fruit within 3 days and bought a whole lot of meat that won't feed us for duration until we get back to the farmgate.  Oh well he did try.  What he did do was buy a side of lamb - and that's a lotta lamb my friends - so lamb chops, and a huge shoulder of lamb have been two dishes we've had in the past week - the lamb shoulder had so much leftover I couldn't just let it be sandwich meat.... so it was reincarnated - into Shepherds pie.

the leftovers!!

It's easy to do, and you can be savvy and use leftover any vegetables.  They say use swedes, parsnips, carrot and peas - that the traditional way but I only had carrot and beans, and it was fine.  Use what you need to use I say - though I wouldn't go with cauliflower or broccoli - just stick to the root veges I say.


Ingredients:
300-500g roast lamb leftovers, removed from bone, and diced
2 cloves garlic - peeled and finely diced
1 sprig rosemary 0 leaves only
1 sprig thyme- leaves only
1 large or 2 small onions, diced
2 large or 3 small carrots, peeled and diced
1 litre beef stock
400g tin diced tomatoes

3-4 cups mashed potato (depending how much you like!)


Method:
In a deep saucepan splash a bit of oil in the bottom and heat to a medium-high temperature.  Saute the onions until they become clear, add the carrot (and any other root vegetables you might want to add) for a few minutes and then add the garlic, rosemary and thyme.

Splosh those around the pan for a further minute and then add the stock and the tomatoes.  Lastly, add the lamb and turn down the heat to a simmer.

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees c

Allow it to reduce to a thicken a little until it takes on the look of a stew.

Transfer to pie dish or casserole tray and mix through your peas or beans.  Top with mash and make some marks across and crossing over with the back of a fork, that helps the top go all lovely and crispy.

At this point you can cool and refrigerate if making ahead, but if eating straight away - put into the oven for 20-25 minutes - if cooking from cooled 35-45 until lightly browned on top.

Delicious - this may have you on the hunt for lamb shoulder a little too big for your family - or, you could use 600g lamb mince !

Meal Plan Monday - stocked up and ready to go!

We did our monthly farmgate expedition on the weekend, it's a busy time.  I basically do a rough monthly meal plan and buy our meat from the abbatoir/butchery and a stock up of fruit and vegetables at the farm.  It's about 45-50mins drive to farmgate and rather than do lots of little shops locally, which cost a fortune and I'm not too sure where the food has actually originated, I like to do it at the farm - the fruit and veges last much longer too, they're not gassed or cold stored/frozen.

So I'm all stocked up, the freezer is full, the fruit ball and vege crispers are overflowing. I'm feeling very virtuous.

At the abbatoir I bought a side of lamb - Most of it was cut down but I cut it down a bit more but for $47 I got:
2kg leg of lamb
1.4kg grams diced lamb
800 grams lamb cutlets
1kg dog bones
400g lamb shank.

I think that's pretty good value and knowing it was grown, killed and butchered within 10km radius of my butchery I love knowing where my food is from.  I also got other stuff, but I won't bore you with that!  I couldn't recommend this butcher enough!

Here's my meal plan for this week:

Monday - BBQ chicken wings
Tuesday - Spanakopita
Wednesday - Doughy-dogs
Thursday - Cottage Pie
Friday - Meatloaf
Saturday - Beef Stroganoff
Sunday - Chorizo and Fennel Hotpot

Sunny

That's the weekend summed up nicely I think.

It wasn't feeling like autumn at all - but not an intense heat of summer, just lovely and warm.   Saturday we headed off nice and early to check out the Hawkesbury Harvest Farmers' Market at Richmond School of the Arts.  It's a lovely old building and the markets are held there on the second Saturday of each month.

For me, it just didn't rock my boat as far as produce was concerned.  I was hoping to pick myself up some figs or chestnuts.  Not to be. . My farmgate produce guys are there - and just up the road, I gave it a miss at the markets and went there afterwards for more variety of produce that they brought to the markets.


What I did get:
Hibiscus flowers in syrup (for champers my friends, champers!)
Some yummy wasabi mayonnaise
Some olives
Some saltbush lamb
Some moisture infused pork
and an acorn squash

Then it was on to M&A butchery to pick up our bulk meat for the month..  and back to our farmgate produce providers, Riverview produce.   We dropped past Macquarie shopping centre to pick up a few odds and ends at Myer before heading home to unpack our bounty, have dinner and shortly after, fall alseep on the couch.  We're big ragers you know.

Yesterday we took my Nan and our frills to their first NRL match.  Hubby is a Tigers fan, and I'm a Manly fan but we support each others' teams when they're not playing each other.   We got there a bit earlier, had a little bit of nibblies and then some lunch, all very civilised, until the yobbos arrived.  And then there were the seemingly sixteen year olds wearing an inch thick of makeup and seemingly nothing but a jersey.  No wonder the NRL has a bad image to shake off.  I suppose when you have to compete with the gyrating cheerleaders. Ahem.

The game itself was good - more of a shame than a game.  We won 40 to 12.  At least the girls got ample opportunity to swing the flags!

Eloise practicing to wave her flag before the game

The other disappointment is the amount of drinking, abuse and LITTERING.

OK, off my pedestal, off for my nanna-nap.. dreaming about my sunny weekend.  lovely.

How was your weekend?

Basis to our culinary heaven...

I thought I should blog about this as it seems many people don't know about it. Whenever we go travelling through the countryside be it down the south coast or to Wagga to visit hubby's mum... I love going past the farmgates and seeing little shacks where you can leave your money and take bags of apples or pears, get the first crop of the cherries of the year - know where it came from and pay bargain-basement prices.

So at the beginning of our holidays over christmas we had discussed going on a few road-trips to put some K's on our car to avoid the taxman slugging us. So after some Googling I found the Hawkesbury Harvest website and in particular, the farmgate trail . It's got great interactive maps and we decided we would try a few out in separate trips over the break.

Our favourites:

Riverview Produce - North Richmond

We basically find 99% of all fruit and veges here. Fresh, Cheap. Bountiful.

Some examples -

• Big thick bunches of Rhubarb $1/$1.50
• Fresh herbs with roots still attached (so you could plant them in the yard) .75
• Fresh Corn (and seriously, the BEST corn I've ever eaten) .50 to .75 per ear
• English spinach .50

Schofields Orchards - North Richmond

In the same street (or dirt road!) as Riverview -

• Great oranges- huge box for $10 or $3 small box - if you like to juice your own or make marmalade - you can't beat it really.
• Lemons and limes very cheap $2 a kilo or something.
• String Beans - huge shopping bags for $2 - share them with friends
• Stone fruit about $4 a kilo. I
• Eggs- very yellow yolks, in fact they are almost orange. $3.50 doz barnlaid $4.00 free-range.

Enniskillen Orchard - Grose Vale

To be honest, the only thing I think I would travel for is their home-grown shrub honey - $7.50 a kilo. Stone fruit if you can't get it from Schofields, it's the same price and quality here.

It is a pretty drive though.

M & A Butchery - Wilberforce

Now if you're a carnivore, you will love M & A Butchery. If you are a vegetarian don't read any further. This butchery is attached to an abbatoir, so when you park, wave hello to the sheep, as you may be going home with one of their relatives. I would take an esky and pick up some ice at one of the servo's on the way there from Richmond/Windsor.

You can have a side of beef cut up for you for around $8 a kg. Blade steak is 2kg for $12 and you can buy just about everything and anything. T-bones come cut or uncut and you can get huge ribs of beef and pork for BBQ's. 2.4kg leg of lamb (great quality too!) we picked up for $17.

I always come home from our trail inspired to cook, there's a lot to be said for knowing where your food comes from and knowing it is fresh. I find myself going through the supermarket with my nose turned up at the fresh food aisles now! And whilst it may cost the average punter a little more with tolls and petrol, it's a briliant day/morning out. It takes 40 minutes from our house to get to Riverview, and 15-20 minutes with ice-stop to get up to Wilberforce from North Richmond.

Driving into Richmond, beside the airforce base, there's a great park for the kids to run off steam, and fantastic cafe called Patchy's on Richmonds' main drag if you like. There's a few Antique shops on the way - I haven't been brave enough with my three littlies to have a look at them yet, but one day!

We're off again on Saturday morning on our farmgate trail, and doing a bit of a convoy with a couple of friends who've seen our previous offerings.

Ahhh Sunday...

Hi everyone - hope your weekend has been all you've wanted and more.  We've had a busy one here!

Yesterday morning I spent a few hours pawning selling tickets to our local Gingerbread House Making night our playgroup is putting on (any sydneysiders want to come? Click here for info!).  Then we headed off to the farmgate trail.

I love farmgate, although it is a good hour to drive to get there, it's inspiring to be at the origins of your food.  Driving through the paddocks of pumpkins, sweetcorn, tomatoes....  At Riverview produce,  much is in abundance this time of the year which also makes it cheaper, and has my head reeling in all the wonderful things I can make for less.

Examples - Granny Smith Apples $1.20 a kilo.   Pink Lady and Red Delicious Apples $1.95 a kilo (I swear I left with about 5 kilos of apples!)  Lemons and oranges $1.50 a kilo.  Fully grown basil plants $1 each... Farm fresh eggs $4 for 2.5 dozen (I got 5 dozen) Silverbeet 70c bunch, homegrown carrots $1 a kilo (bought a few to allow our carrots to get a bit bigger) lots, lots more.

The most exciting discovery that our butcher is on next seasons' Masterchef!  Its' status as the best kept secret of butchery heaven is about to change.   M&A Butchery I've posted about before, they are Sydneys' only butcher with an abbatoir attached.  Real old school, cattle does not have to travel in various trucks for hours or days, it literally is 200m from paddock to counter.  That makes a lot of difference to quality and also price.  I popped in close to closing time yesterday and wanted some yearling blade steak (always on special at 2kg for $12) but there was none left... so they cut it off a carcass out the back for me... can't get fresher than that can you:?  If you are going to head out, take an esky and some icebricks/ice like we do.

We also stopped off at Parklea Markets. I haven't been there for decades I realised, I forgot how big it is! We went in search for Christmas lights (my hubby has a bad addiction to those!) but I ended up leaving with my Christmas pudding steamer and some other kitchen nick-nacks.  Then we got lost trying to find the right exit where our car was!  That's not a lot of fun in the heat!

Last night we had a BBQ dinner outside as it started to cool down and when the kids went to bed I made a pav and some little christmas treaties, will share with you on Friday as part of lead up to Christmas 'Festive Friday' series.

Today I think will be a bit of washing and some gardening.. meal planning for next week....

How's your weekend going?  What's the plan for today?

FrillyFrugalFriday: Keeping Track...

Ok, I am really committed now, I'm tracking all expenses we've paid this month as far as groceries etc.

I really should menu plan. That's my mission this week. I think at this stage I could only commit to one week planning though I could commit through the whole month about a chicken/fish/meat/vegetarian base.. I'll have a look through some others' meal planning for inspiration..

My 5 frugal things I did this week:

1. We didn't go anywhere this week that required money - playgroup was paid up for, and the weather was crappy enough that we didn't go to the park but we did go to the library which is a free service. Kept the kids entertained at home with craft, number and letter games, dress ups, cooking etc.

2. Didn't venture out either to top up the shopping

3. Still no using of the dryer even with the wet weather, chinese laundry set up on patio and deck keeping my washing down, and I'm being disciplined about washing every day to keep on top of things to help me stick to it. It's too easy to let it go and then relent to using the clothesdryer isn't it?

4. Hubby has taken lunch and his morning to work every day and as far as I know, hasn't bought anything extra.

5. Purchased my 30 minute Mozzarella/Ricotta kit - this cost $34.50 and will yield about RRP $80 of ricotta... and with potential to cost less as I replace bits and pieces of the kit.

6. (I know extra) I did all shopping that I could buy from Aldi at Aldi, bought meat only from the abbatoir, fruit and veg from the farmgate and the other essentials only at the supermarket as last resort.

It's extra effort but I'm feeling very proud of us! Another month and we'll be substituting some of our farmgate purchases from our own garden!

Sunday baking project: Sweet carrot and pecan pull-aparts

There's something utterly self indulgent about fresh bread from the oven - and apart from the therapeudic process (for me anyway) of making the bread, proving, shaping and baking the bread - the reward of fresh bread (and butter) - there is nothing like it.

This morning I surveyed my fridge - and after farmgate yesterday I realised I had overindulged in some produce - namely carrots and swedes - swedes are no issue to use - soup, mash, bake but carrots are different - carrot cake, blanch and freeze.. no.  I didn't want to do those - I wanted to bake and I thought the best way I combine the need to use the carrots and my passion for Sunday morning bread making was just one thing - carrot bread.

I found a recipe by my favourite baker - Leila Lindholm but I didn't feel like using all the nuts and seeds she puts in hers so I mixed it up a little, made it into a pull-apart and the rest we shall say is.. in my family's belly and stashed for later!!


Ingredients:
250 vegetable juice (I used carrot/orange V8)
1 cup skim milk, warm (not hot) with 2tb golden syrup in it.
2 tb melted butter (50g)
1 1/2 tb mixed spice
1 tb dry yeast
4 medium carrots, grated
1/2 cup pecans, roughly chopped
5 cups plain flour (plus a little on hand just in case your carrots are juicy!)
1 tb golden syrup, extra


Method:
In a bowl or jug add the juice, milk, melted butter, mixed spice and yeast.

Grate your carrots and chop up your pecans (you could use walnuts instead if you like)

In your mixer or in your large bowl mix your liquid ingredients with the nuts and carrot.

Gradually add flour, cup by cup and combine until an elastic dough.

Place in a greased bowl with some clingfilm on top and leave to prove for 1 hour.

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees c.  Grease some tins or a baking tray and divide your dough in half.  Roll each half into a sausage shape and cut up your dough and roll into the balls of about 2inches in diameter.

Place into tins with a little bit of room to move (I ran out of trays!)

 Bake for 25-30 minutes, until coked through.  Mix the remaining tb of golden syrup with 1 1/2 tb water and brush over the bread when it comes out of the oven.

Suitable to freeze and reheat for up to 2 months.

Sound good to you?  Who wants to make it?

Try it this weekend: Pork belly with sage, pancetta and apples

Fridays are such a mixed bag in this house.   There's generally an air of relief that the working and school week is coming to an end and if we're lucky, there's at some point in the next few days we can stop and relax - not have to rush somewhere or have a gajillion things to remember to get ready.

But also on Friday, with two five year olds and an almost seven year old everyone's a bit over it and it's a struggle to get out the door to school.  Everyone is tired and whingey.  But once they are at school my mood picks up and I start to think about the weekend - and especially in the colder weather - what I can cook.

My friend Lorraine sent me this cookbook because she thought it was me, and looking through it, I can see why.  It's full of family-type winter warmers.   I took one look at the pork belly with sage, pancetta and apples recipe and knew I had to make it.

So it went on the mealplan and onto my shopping list for farmgate - and I picked up a lovely pork belly with crackling from my butcher for $19.

It reminds me a little of le pork roast - especially with the baked apples element but it does have it's own extremely tasty flavour and family friendly - everyone loved it.  It's moist and even if you are not wanting to partake in the crackling (oh lovely crackling...drool) you can find some lovely lean pork the base of the pork belly too.  We had loads of leftovers which hubby happily ate for lunches and on sambos for a few days.

So if you're out and about this weekend, grab yourself some pork belly and make this - you'll have some pork for sandwiches for the week too!


Ingredients:
12 cloves garlic
3 brown onions, cut in half
2 tsp fennel seeds
10 sage leaves, roughly chopped
Enough pancetta to cover your pork belly
4 small red apples
cooking twine


Method:
Preheat oven to 200 degrees c
Place garlic in a oven proof dish (I used a ramekin) and sprinkle about 1 tsp oil over the top - roast in the oven for about 20 minutes.

Remove, cool for 10 minutes and remove the skins.  Place the pulp in a mortar and pestle or a mini processor.

Mix with 1 tsp of fennel seeds, crush seeds and mix in with the garlic until it becomes paste-like.

Meanwhile, put your belly skin side up on a tray or cooling tray over a sink.  Cut some slits in the top and boil a full jug of water in the kettle.  When it boils, pour it over the pork belly rind - this softens it up.  Drain about 5 minutes.

Rub in the garlic and fennel paste.

Cover with your pancetta.

On a cutting board or clean surface sprinkle the remaining fennel seeds, sage and lay out some cooking twine in a snake-like configuration - so the loop height is roughly about 5cm more than the height of your pork belly.

Place your pork belly pancetta side down on top of the twine and take up the ends and thread them through the loops, securing the pancetta onto the pork belly.  Continue until it's all tied together then sprinkle left-over sage and fennel seeds on top.

Oil a baking tray and place the pork belly in there pancetta side up.  Next add your onions in the pan.

Place in the oven for 30 minutes to allow the top to crisp up.

Then score your apples with a knife to ensure they don't explode in the oven (no one wants that right?)

Turn the oven down to 150 degrees c.
Add apples to the pan, give the pork a good baste and bake for another 2 1/4 hours, basting every 45 minutes.

Corrr!  Look at THAT! Yum right?  Remove the pork belly, apples and onions from the tray.  Allow the pork to rest for 20 minutes before carving.

That gives you enough time to make gravy with the pan.  Put it on the hob and add some cornflour mixed in milk, watch over it and whisk it in.

Serve!