Tuesday and then Wednesday

Tuesday I quilted till the last possible moment, then the Grandies arrived with Mum, just for a little game and hello. Great time had and a toy taken home. YAY!!!!!!!, half an inch free in the toy box. Darling arrived home as they were leaving. Then time to rush into the kitchen. Made dinner then back to the quilting grind..............did the same today..............yay!! ............so pleased with what was accomplished.

Tuesday dinner was veal steaks, thinly sliced and quickly pan fried, then a tomato sauce spooned over and a soft fetta cheese just sprinkled on top, the potatoes were steamed and rolled in an olive oil, butter, oregano & parsley sauce, some nice fresh steamed beans and a medley of yellow squash, mushrooms, spanish onion with a little garlic, pan fried in a non stick pan with a minimum of olive oil.

Tonight, (Wednesday) I was feeling a bit short on energy,
remembered this packet of Cous-cous, recommended by the New Bride, dug it out of the freezer ( am I the only one who keeps this sort of thing in the freezer? or is it just a tropical thing? cannot bear opening up a box/packet to find ........wild life!) anyway, pan fried some spanish onion, garlic, zucchini and beans, added it to the aforementioned "Spice Sensation" cous-cous, while it sat and absorbed the stock and flavours of the vegetables I butterflied 2 pork fillets, heavily rubbed with a Morroccan Spice Mix and gave it a quickish pan fry, plated the result and we did enjoy. An improvement would be another side dish of vegetables and maybe a yoghurt based spicy sauce for the pork.

But for an evening meal following a day of hard yakka, it kind of filled the bill.
And the reason for all this activity?
A signature block swap, due soon, had to be done and posted and this is what all the fuss is about.
Thirteen separate little "Ginger Jar" blocks, to be posted out to fellow swappers, what will I get in return? I guess time will tell.

Monday Lunch and Great Dinner

Visited Merlot's for lunch, they do very fresh, homemade cafe style meals, Son had the All-Day Big Breakfast, needed lots of protein after a morning in the Gym, Darling went for the Beef Burger and I had a steak sandwich. Lots of leafy green stuff, tomato, beetroot and a slice of very tender rump steak of a good thickness. The Big Breakfast had a couple of very nice pork sausages, along with the bacon, eggs, tomato and salad.
While waiting for the food to be delivered a call came from the support team with an invite to a curry dinner.
O.M.G. What a Feast.........When we arrived, Son was in charge in the kitchen and D.I.L was offsider, they work well together.
There were 2 different rice accompaniments
a Duck and Vegetable Curry
a Chicken and Pineapple Curry

This was my serving, my first serving, went back a couple of times, o.k. o.k. more than a couple of times,


And then for Dessert an apple pie that was just too yum, made with fresh sliced apples, and sweet shortcrust pastry.
I had 2 helpings, both with whipped cream.........well tomorrow I'll be really good, lettuce for breakfast and lettuce for lunch........ahhhh so!, so! worth it.

and the icing on the cake, while reading a bedtime story, a joint effort with the eldest coaching the littlest, I got a pressie, a new key ring, I will use it with pride, thank you support team for a wonderful evening.

Sunday Lunch at Mecca Bah

Lunch was at the Mecca Bah in Brissy, in the "Emporium" complex in the Valley (Fortitude Valley). The food was excellent, we all ordered entrees but lots of trading of morsels and tastings went on. I ordered the Bastilla, Moroccan Chicken pastries, shredded chicken in a light phylo pastry, they were dusted with cinnamon and powdered sugar (icing sugar) and at first bite a bit of a shock, but it worked really well, although very rich, good thing we shared.


The other entrees were Spicy Turkish Kofte and Sweet Potato Felafels, all delicious.
we then went on with a selection of main dishes, Mussels with harissa, tomatoes and preserved lemon, served in a tagine and Turkish Pizzas, the lightest ever boat shaped pizza bases and fresh tasty toppings, a delight to eat.

There are 3 of these restaurants in different cities, they even have their own website.
http://www.meccabah.com, which I don't seem to be able to get to link up here, but it you google it its a cinch to find.

Sis insisted that we have shared desserts of the Sticky Date and banana Pudding with Date and Vanilla Ice-cream. Heaven.
We then toddled across the road to "Freestyle" where they have the most wonderful decadent desserts imaginable, and watched the passing parade of lusciousness, we couldn't cope with another dessert but ordered coffee and liqueurs.
So guess what we had for dinner tonight, yep, thats right. Not a thing! And as we have a date with son for lunch tomorrow brecky will be a light affair as well.

Day Choc-a-Block with activities,..........

Hoo Boy, what a day, the Grandies visited, bright and early, (someone was still in their p.j.'s) and stayed till late arvo, by the time it came to staggering off to the kitchen with a glass of bubbles to fortify me, I needed something really easy to get onto a plate, or in this case, into a bowl.

Sweated and onion, 2 cloves garlic, a few finely diced mushrooms and a good handful of finely diced green capsicum, turned up the heat and browned off about 400grams of fat free mince,then the difficult part, poured in a jar of Paul Newmans Spaghetti Sauce. Simmered while spaghetti cooked, and served. Not a stick of garlic bread or a salad leaf to be seen, didn't even go downstairs to pick fresh herbs.

Warming Comfort Food

Felt the need for some comfort food and thought of Beef Bourguignon, well, thats not a dish to just throw together, but nevertheless I made do, the bacon was too thinly cut, as was the beef, there wasn't a shallot in sight, but we did have a nice bottle of red wine, a thank you pressie to the Darling for some recording done. So following Stephanie Alexanders' recipe, but limping along a little and making do with the ingredients shortfailings, I managed to turn out this dish, flavour was great but the gravy was a little thin, too much stock added at the beginning, the thinner meat meant less cooking time.
However, while I was plating the meal, disaster presented itself, while draining off the Darlings peas a light globe from the overhead lights fell and smacked the side of the saucepan, bits of glass everywhere. The Darling had one small piece of broccoli for his greens, and guess what? at the end of the meal there was still one small piece of broccoli on the plate. Gave it to a dog.
Stephanie Alexander's Beef Bourguignon recipe is my all time fave..........she puts a small piece of orange zest into the bouquet garni along with a bay leaf, a few sprigs of thyme and parsley, this mix really boosts the fruitiness of the red wine
The vegies were mashed potatoes, steamed carrots and steamed broccoli, with an attempted showing of the faithful dried green peas.

Spaghetti and Meatballs in Tomato Sauce

........a favourite from so long ago, have been making this dish for nigh on 30 years,(my god that is so scary) in fact this is the original cookbook,
and of course the favourite recipe page.

As Sons left home and ventured out into the world of "what's to eat" they all at some time or another had a "loan" of this book, so all the splashes on Page 28 are not all my splashes.
About 10 years ago there were quite a few copies in the secondhand bookshops and I got a few spare copies.

This is the final dish, although on reading the original recipe I realise that I have changed it a little over the years, using less fat and oils, leaner mean, fresh herbs etc, but it is still a really great dish, even if as in tonights case, the cheese is pre-grated from a packet.

Lovely Lamb Cutlets, Garlic Mash & assorted vegies.

An interesting article in this mornings paper about Lamb Cutlets being $50.00 a kilo, when I saw some at my butchers for a mere $31.95 I felt I had to just snap up some of that bargain, they were absolutely delicious, pan fried them with a side dish of yellow button squash, red and green capsicum and mushrooms, the vegies soaked up the pan juices from the lamb, yum, I served them with Garlic mashed potatoes, steamed beans and brocolli and of course for the Darling some of his favourite peas, not featured on my plate. Topped those beautiful little cutlets off with a Donna Hay inspired dressing.
I took a small handful of fresh mint leaves, picked over and washed, popped them into the mini blender, added 3/4 dessertspoon of dijon mustard, and a dessertspoon of honey, whizzed it all together, very simple and very fresh, a lovely sweet, minty flavour.
As I have spent all today designing a shaped tea-cozy (I think I have got it worked out now) and to help the budget recover from the lamb, dinner tonight will something more everyday.

Dinner tonight.......

I usually make 3 meals when cooking for us, the 3rd is for the Darlings lunch next day, tonight a simple dish of layered vegetables, sliced zucchini, sliced tomatoes, onion slices, topped with chicken breast and grated cheese, placed in an oven for 25 mins., served with oven crisped potatoes and carrots with steamed greens.
Followed a recipe for this one and won't be repeating it. In fact got going early to do a chicken and noodle stir fry for the Darlings packed lunch, the dogs got the other dinner I was so unimpressed.

Restaurant meals

all day Monday, so nothing to post food wise, am off to a friends house this morning for coffee and cake so a batch of cupcakes seem to be the order of the day, cream cheese frosting in pastel shadesthe view from the veranda, where we had a beautiful morning tea with the tiniest little biscuits, colourful pots of mini-bouganvilea hanging from the rafter.

at the bottom of the garden terracing takes you through the rain forrest to a creek.


where I found this tiny little flower, a tiny native violet.

Another lunch out,

this time with the Support Team and Grandies at the local pub, food wasn't as good as it usually is.
After lunch, support team went off shopping for red boots while we had the Grandies for the arvo, to their delight the magpie was waiting for food on the verandah,
Then Uncle arrived for a visit, and after all that excitement the Shitzu fell asleep in the arms of Grandie 2, would have taken a piccie of that but they were both on my lap.
Dinner tonight was a Bacon, Tomato & Vegetable Soup, a bit like a combination of every Minestrone Soup recipe you have ever come across with more vegies added.
To serve 2
3 bacon rashers, trimmed of fat and chopped into squares
1 onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon olive oil
2 cups diced Vegetables,
this is variable, tonight I used carrot, zucchini, mushroom, beans, and brocolli stalk and red capsicum. I have also used potato, sweet potato, basically any vegetable will do.
1 litre chicken stock
1 tablespoon chopped fresh oregano or 1/4 teaspoon dried
1 small can 410grms diced tomatoes
1/4 cup rissoni, a small rice shape pasta, or other small pasta

Sweat bacon, onion and garlic in olive oil, when onion begins to soften, raise heat and add diced vegetables, stir regularly and brown slightly, add chicken stock, oregano and can of tomatoes. Lower heat and simmer approx 15mins.
Add rissoni and simmer for another 15 mins.
Serve with a good parmesan and a nice glass of red wine.
If you are into croutons with your soup, slice some turkish bread, brush with garlic olive oil and toast under griller or in a very high oven 275 deg.
The Grandies were summoned home for a lovely roast dinner, smelt heavenly when we delivered them but sadly we had to turn down the dinner invite, still full from lunch and we were both just a little pooped from the afternoons entertainment.

Saturday Lunch and simple dinner

Visited our eldest and took him to lunch at a local eatery, had a fun time talking technology, but of course a big lunch means not hungry for dinner. We ditched our dinner plans and opted for something simpler. The Darling chose a dish of spicy salami in chilli tomato sauce over pasta, I came across this recipe some years ago and am not sure if I have changed it beyond recognition or not, Spaghetti Amatricana I think it was called, anyway this is my version. Without cheese and with.

to make this for 2 you need:
1 brown onion, finely diced
1 clove garlic, crushed
little olive oil, about 1 teaspoon
410 gram can crushed tomatoes
1 tablespoon tomato paste
good pinch of dried oregano or tablespoon of fresh chopped
a pinch of chilli flakes or 1/4 teaspoon minced chilli
about 150grams of spicy hot salami, sliced into matchsticks
1/4 red capsicum, thinly sliced
spaghetti for 2
grated cheese, I used a mix of mozarella and parmesan

Slowly heat salami in a non-stick pan until crisp, I use a wok so the fat can drain to the bottom of the pan. When crisp remove to paper towel and drain.
Sweat the onion and garlic in the o.oil, when onion is soft add the can of tomatoes, the tomato paste, oregano, chill flakes or paste and half a can of water, simmer until starting to thicken.
Bring pan of salted water to boil and cook spaghetti or any other pasta of choice,
When pasta is half cooked, add the sliced capsicum and the crisped salami to the tomato sauce and continue to simmer.

Drain pasta and plate, top with sauce, sprinkle cheese over and enjoy.

The technology we were most interested in? this...........

some of its many features are, it has GPSSurfs the net, showing a piccie here from eldest's flickr site
has its own cute little sock


oh, yes and it's also a mobile phone.

Baked risotto with bacon, chicken and peas

Baked risotto seemed like a good idea for dinner after a day of quilting, needed something that was just popped into the oven, I found that after the 30mins cooking time in the oven the rice was barely starting to soften, added the peas as directed and popped it back into the oven for another 20mins instead of the 10 as per the recipe. Big Mistake, the risotto was overcooked with barely any fluid. I only did a serving for 2 and halved all the ingredients including the stock so that may also have had a bearing on it, the flavour was wonderful but the texture was sticky, not up the Darlings path at all. Will wait until he is traveling and try the dish again with a little tweaking.

Thursday Dinner

Braved the village rush hour to finally go get supplies, or as Darling puts it, go hunt and gather, sometimes that is exactly how it feels, brave the forces of evil, manic drivers wanting to get from here to there in less time than it actually takes.

Anyway, on to tonights dinner, another Donna Hay inspired little feast, after the past few, well alright, more than a few, nights of quick dinners did a Sirloin Steak with a balsamic tomato pan sauce.
The potatoes were to be chats, steamed and rolled in parsley and olive oil but not a chat in sight at the fruiterers, so settled for some sebago potatoes, chunked, steamed and then the parsley oil drizzled over, it immediately soaked into the potatoes, so drizzled a little of the sauce from the tomatoes over them as well.
And this is how I did it:
half a punnet of cherry tomatoes, (approx 125grms) sliced into halves into a bowl, added a couple of young sprigs of thyme, 1 tablespoon of olive oil and 1 teaspoon of butter, put to one side until needed.
2 small handfuls of baby english spinach leaves, washed, dried and picked over.
1 tablespoon finely chopped Parsley mixed with 1 tablespoon olive oil, this is more than needed but its hard to do less in a processor.
top and tail 2 serves of green beans, steam
steam chats or in this case a chunked sebago, sprinkled with salt.
Heat pan and cook 2 sirloin steaks until almost done, salting one side after turning, this only takes a few mins, then add the tomatoes, oil,butter and thyme, cook till tomatoes are beginning to soften and steak is done to your liking, the thyme leaves will fall from the stalks in the cooking.
Place a handful of spinach on each plate, place steak on top, the heat of the steak and the juices wilts the spinach.
Spoon the tomato sauce, sans thyme stalks, over the steak and plate the other vegetables to the side.
Pour a glass of something red and delicious and Enjoy!

Tuesday & Wednesday

Tuesdays dinner was a simple dish of stir fried vegies with a soy and chilli sauce, dried noodles and a butterflied pork chop with the same sauce.

Wednesday, got caught up at the specialists, left after dark and a long drive home, what to have that was quick?, didn't want to be eating too late.
Called in at the local foodstore and got a jar of pasta sauce and some extra mushrooms.
Browned up some minced beef, added chopped mushrooms, garlic and the jar of sauce and left it to simmer while the spaghetti cooked, stirred some chopped basil leaves through the sauce, served it over the spaghetti and sliced some lovely parmesan cheese on top. Not a great success, got an o.k. from the Darling but thats all. A small step up from pizza is about all it was. Spaghetti sauce in a jar can be useful but the cheaper ones have a flavour all of their own.

Monday

Met our youngest for lunch at the R.S.L. Caloundra again, food was a little disappointing, again, overcooked, again, although the steak was great, also again, so its either steak or off to try a venu at Kings Beach next week. This is a piccie of the coffee bar from the lower restaurant floor where we were seated.

The reflections through the wall of glass behind us onto the red perspex made this a difficult piccie from this angel, just wanted the really cool lights in the foreground, they are part of the dividing wall. Would love to see this venu lit up at night.

While still at lunch, got a phone call from Grandie, "can you come for a cup of tea, we have cake, its a present for having us stay". Not an event to say no to, and here is our cake, not a calorie in sight, aren't they just the cutest? They are facecloths.
All that steak for lunch and someone wasn't hungry, so again a really easy meal for dinner, just a chicken salad and a very simple version at that.

Not an avocado, peach or grape in sight. Must have been even more tired than I thought.

The Grandies Visit

Young grandsons came for a sleepover on Saturday night, so food had to be simple, they cooked it, just ask 'em and they will tell you how.
We had a pasta and creamy sauce dish, very tasty but the only pic is the one taken of the youngest ones dinner, someone was hogging the camera!
This is the table they set, lots of candles, colour didn't seem to be an issue.

To make the sauce I sweated finely chopped onion, garlic, mushrooms, brocolli stems, zucchini and bacon in a little oil , the zucchini had begun to fall apart when the re-inforcements arrived, and so up onto the bench to "cook dinner", we added chicken breast cut into small cubes and browned it, with much stirring, added some diced red and green capsicum, more stirring and then dusted over a little plain flour for thickening, much more stirring, then poured over a can of light evaporated milk, lots of stirring now, but then left to reduce down, this comes up as a creamy pasta sauce, think carbonara but not the cream and plus the vegies, important to get these into little boys by any subterfuge.
Two types of pasta needed for this meal, after all, a little boy has to have his teddy bear pasta.

The youngest will not eat lumps in food at all, so through the blender and hey presto, creamy sauce for teddy bear noodles, went down a treat, especially with the help of his uncles food pusher, sort of chair lift to the mouth.
But oh, the looks of it all mushed up like that, ugh!
Anyway, a good time was had by all and we were all up at 5a.m. for hot chocolate and coffee in bed with Grandad, followed by a breakfast of yoghurt and grapes with pikelets, bacon and maple syrup and to drink apple juice and more coffee. And the camera was.........?

Sunday Lunch was turkish bread with a dusting of parmesan cheese and grilled, layered with lettuce, tomato, kalamata olives, fetta and chicken then drizzled with a nice creamy dressing of egg mayo thinned with milk and caesar salad dressing for zing.

Dinner for a couple of pooped Grandfolk was very simple, leftovers really, made a cheese sauce to which I had added a couple of chopped mushrooms and a little capsicum, added some shredded cold chicken, the left over pasta and into a gratine dish, sprinkled dried breadcrumbs over and scattered grated cheese on top, into a hot oven to heat and brown while I plated up a salad.

Friday fastie

Gosh, this is the 3rd fastie in a row, up in the air all day, waiting on a yes or no on a dinner acceptance, it wasn't until 4 that I found it to be a no show, of course that meant dealing with the daily home-bound village traffic, nope, not doing that, so what to make?, had to be something from the freezer and what I could scrounge in the way of vegies.........this is what I came up with.

Sort of Chinese, very sort of,
Fried rice, left over steamed rice from last night with bacon, peas, egg, soy sauce and spring onion,
Stir Fried vegies, a bit of everything, garlic, zucchini, red capsicum, broccoli, beans and onion, sweet chilli sauce and soy added at the end.
And of course the Chicken half breast, wok browned and then a splash of Ginger Juice, a few drops of Sesame Oil, Honey and a little minced chilli, from jars or bottles no less. Seemed a bit bizarre to plate it but Friday night is shortcut night and 2 plates against 2 bowls and all the serving bowls and spoons, not much of a competition huh?

Two Fast Dinners

Wednesdays dinner was the old fav, Penne pasta with wilted rocket/spinach and prosciutto. Fast and Easy.

This my version of a Donna Hay recipe from her excellent book "the instant cook"

for two servings I use:

200g penne

4 slices prosciutto

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

50g baby rocket, rocket or baby english spinach leaves

black pepper

some freshly grated parmesan and a few slices of same

And this is the way I do it:

Either grill prosciutto or pan fry, I use a dry non stick wok, with the prosciutto on the sides so that the fat can drain to the bottom.

Cook the pasta in salted water until al dente. Drain, place washed leaves in saucepan used to cook pasta, put drained pasta over the leaves.

Chop or crumble the cooked prosciutto into the pasta, and sprinkle the grated parmesan over.

Shake the vinegar and oil in a jar and pour over, toss all together.

Serve in bowls with the sliced parmesan on top. Add your own cracked pepper. Always good.

I think I have found another "I don't wanna cook" dish.

I found this jar of Green Curry Paste at the Fruiters, there is a web site: http://www.christinemanfield.com/

And inside the jar...........

This was the result, yummo, got a big thumbs up from the Darling. Will definitely be doing this again. The Jar was just under $12 and I used about a quarter to make 4 servings, 2 dinner and 2 lunches for today.

So not only easy but very economical.

This is how I did it.

Chopped 1 onion and 2 single chicken breasts into chunks, popped into pan with a little oil to brown, added chunked vegies that were around, pumpkin, sweet potato, potato, beans, dried peas (of course) and brocolli stalk- yep, just the stalk, Darling Heart won't eat brocolli so at every opportunity I finely dice the stalk and add to whatever.

All of this was browned in the pan together and then I added a can of light coconut milk, cooked until done and stirred in some sliced fresh basil leaves. Served it with some steamed Doongara long grain rice.

There are other suggestions of the jar that definitely need to be explored.

Pork & Balsamic Jus with Mash and steamed Vegies

Tuesdays dinner left a bit to be desired, the carrots were overly strong in flavour, getting a bit old perhaps, and the pork was cut so thin as to be almost non existent, had taken these from the freezer, must have had a different dish in mind when I bought them. Lots of pain in right shoulder because of the strained muscle, so not too functional in the kitchen, downright crabby in fact and it showed in the dinner.

Off to the cottage for a day of gossip and needlecraft so dinner tonight will be the old favourite of penne with wilted spinach/rocket and prosciutto.

Sunday

Sunday, rainy Sunday, what an excuse to stay indoors and watch movies and just generally lol around, felt like some comfort food for lunch but settled for corn fritters and red pepper chutney with a couple of rashers of crispy bacon.

Dinner was a simple affair of Pork with toasted pine nut and sweet potato salad a Donna Hay inspiration.

The dressing of o.oil, red wine vinegar and honey was a bit of a hit.