It's A Very Rocky Road Indeed...

Have just busted Myles trying to pull a swift one again...it's been happening quite a bit of late, to varying degrees, sometimes with potentially serious consequences.

This time it's kind of funny though.

He has Home Economics at school tomorrow...during term time they have cooked a number of great recipes so this being end of term they are preparing a treat.

This is the recipe that he brought home for Rocky Road...

200g Raspberry Lollies
200g Peanuts
200g Marshmallows
200g Snakes/Jelly Lollies
460g Milk Cooking Chocolate

This morning I asked him to write out me a list of the things he needed so I could go to the supermarket and pick them up today. He often forgets and remembers once dinner is over etc. on Thursday night and someone (usually John) has to go out into the cold to get what he needs.

Last thing you want to do once you have settled in by the fire for the evening.

He disappeared into his bedroom and this is the list he came up with...somewhat modified...

800g Raspberry Lollies
800g Marshmallows
800g Snakes/Jelly Lollies
500g Milk Cooking Chocolate

*Peanuts omitted as he is highly sensitive to all nuts but he cleverly decided to replace them with Rice Bubbles instead.

It didn't "add up" at all to me...why would you quadruple the lolly part of the ingredients and only add 40g of extra chocolate, the ingredient that is meant to be melted so as to bind it all together. Using Myles rationale the chocolate should have been increased to 1840g, almost 2kg...!!! My estimation of the cost of Myles' list was around $32.00.

After checking with his friend Bryce's Mum on the phone, it seemed that the boys were planning a junk-food-fest..!!! Bryce hadn't been quite so eager and avaricious...he had only doubled the ingredients and his Mum had no idea.

This was a much more clever attempt at pulling a fast one...but still didn't work, I'm still a step or two ahead...!!!

Pizza...

It's a relaxed evening here, we have a public holiday tomorrow...Labour Day. Matilda is out at a birthday party sleepover and who knows where Josh is, he hasn't put in an appearance here since Friday evening. I was going to cook a roast for dinner...I have a whole organic Pork Scotch Fillet just waiting to be enjoyed but it seems a bit pointless having it tonight with only three of us home so that will be tomorrow night's dinner.

Instead I pulled out some home made pizza bases from the freezer...last time we had pizza I made about ten so we would have some to freeze. I'm a bit of a pizza purist, having grown up in the midst of a large number of Italian families...(thin base and minimalist toppings)...we ate wood fired pizza in the 1970's, about 30 years before it became fashionable.

I topped the bases with thinly sliced potato, olive oil, garlic, rosemary and sea salt then into the oven for fifteen minutes...a little grated parmesan after cooking and they were just divine. There are some tastes that just "go" together and this combo on our pizzas was just meant to be.


We ate the pizzas with a glass of red at about 6pm and have just finished off a bowl of Split Pea & Ham soup that I made on Friday...it was good then but great now.

Life's good really...

*Disclaimer - the photo isn't my pizza, we got into them so quickly I forgot to photograph them but they looked very similar.

Yum...

Matilda and I baked Hot Cross/Easter Buns this afternoon...they are divine and I am seriously doubting we will ever go back to the bought ones. They do take a little effort and time but it's done in stages so you can get on with other (more tedious but unfortunately necessary) chores.

Oh delicious...
...the house smells divine, yeasty, toasty & fruity.

Here's the recipe we used. It calls for currants but as we aren't especially fond of them we substituted with sultanas & dried apricots in a 3:1 ratio. Next time I will add a little more fruit but will have to be careful not to bog the dough down with so much fruit that it doesn't rise well. Matilda & Myles would be keen to see some chocolate chips added but I'm not so sure, am a bit of a purist when it comes to traditional baking.

Was a lovely way to spend a Sunday afternoon indeed...

Jam...apricot jam...

I have had the urge to make jam ever since apricots came into season and it's been agony waiting until the height of the season, when the fruit is at it's peak (or just past as works best for apricots I have found).

Yesterday while out shopping I found some jam apricots at the fruit market...very ripe, very soft and perfect for jam making...at $2.99/kilo, even better given that eating apricots were around $9.00/kilo. I used Maggie Beer's recipe from her book Maggie's Harvest...a gorgeous book I refer to regularly to use an ingredient in season.

Here are the fruits (pun fully intended) of my labour...


Am going to head out to the bakery tomorrow morning (or even better, send someone else) for a loaf of sourdough rye and enjoy it on toast for breakfast.

Oh yum...

Ho, Ho, Ho...not long to go...

I have been a little absent this week, have had to lay low as I have had some unusual back pain. Am off to see my surgeon on Friday but in the meantime I have to rest as much as I can.

Yesterday I planned our Christmas lunch menu...sat on the sofa with a number of magazines & books. We usually do a lovely breakfast (croissants, smoked salmon and cream cheese, preserves, raspberries & cream and a fruit platter with juices, sparkling wine and lots of coffee) and then one main meal for the day, served around 3pm or so...there are lots of leftovers if anyone happens to get hungry.

This year our menu is...

Starter

Oysters with Wasabi, Soy & Sesame Dressing
Tiger Prawns
Moreton Bay Bugs
Lemon Aioli

Mains

Roast Loin of Pork with Apple & Sage Stuffing
Barbecues Salmon with Mango & Coriander Salsa
Roast Duckling with Sour Cherries
Ham off the Bone

Sides

Crispy Rosemary Potatoes
Roasted Tomato & Red Onion Salad
Asparagus with Lime Butter
Wild Rice & Cranberry Salad
Mixed Green Salad (greens from our garden)

Dessert

Poached Champagne Peaches
Christmas Trifle

To be served with the appropriate wines of course. I'll also probably make a festive punch for those not drinking alcohol.

It seems ridiculous to me to do the whole hot roast dinner when living in the sub-tropics. It will quite probably be around 28-32C (82-90F) here on Christmas Day so the meal needs to be adapted to suit the climate. I'll cook the pork, duck, salmon and potatoes in the barbecue out on the back verandah to keep the house cooler and to give me some space. It can still remain very festive & special. Many families eat outdoors or have a Christmas barbecue or picnic, a very sensible idea indeed.

After lunch we will quite probably either sleep or swim in the pool, possibly both.

Just once in my lifetime though I'd love to do the white Christmas thing in a cold climate.

Just as a side note...last weekend John was shopping and saw legs of ham that had been reduced in price. He thought they were very reasonable so decided to purchase one. When he got to the checkout the ham scanned at the original price so he was lucky enough to get it free of charge. Have to love the Scanning Code of Conduct, don't you...??? It was around $45.00 worth of ham, free of charge.

Easiest Dinner Ever...

Mondays are a bit manic here after school, Matilda has cheerleading class at 4pm so I pick her up from school, (she usually catches the train home but it gets in too late for her class on Mondays), whizz home, whizz out again to cheerleading, I drive home, prepare dinner then whizz out to pick her up at 5.30pm. Mind you, it's a lot less crazy since Myles finished football for the season, I used to have to take him to training on the way to pick Matilda up.

So Monday dinners need to pretty much take care of themselves...tonight's dinner was a Jamie Oliver recipe. It's prepared and cooked in the one dish, (I use a paella dish given to me by my sister, she lived in Spain for a few years, it's the real deal). Preparation takes 10 minutes from beginning to in the oven...truly it does, we love it at our house.


Not sure on exact quantities but it goes something like this...

10 Free Range Chicken Thigh Fillets
8 Medium sized Chat Potatoes
12 Truss Cherry Tomatoes
I Head Garlic (around 10 cloves)
Handful Fresh Thyme
4 Small Onions - pickling size are great
Balsamic Vinegar Reduction
Olive Oil
Salt & Pepper
Continental Parsley

Brush large casserole/paella dish with olive oil.
Halve Chicken Fillets and arrange evenly in dish.
Quarter Potatoes and poke in the spaces between the chicken.
Peel Garlic and Onions, quarter onions, fill empty spaces.
Scatter Cherry Tomatoes evenly, I like to leave the stems on.
Wedge the Thyme in among everything in the dish.
Drizzle with Balsamic Reduction and Olive Oil
Season with Salt & Pepper - I prefer salt flakes and freshly ground pepper.

Bake in 180C oven for approx. one hour or until potatoes are golden.
Adjust seasonings & scatter with chopped Continental Parsley

We love this meal with a huge green salad and lots of crusty bread to mop up the juices in the bottom of the dish...they're good, really good.

*Photo is the dinner I prepared tonight...it's also a meal you can prepare earlier in the afternoon or even the morning and leave in the fridge until you need it. If you do it that way, it's a good idea to quarter the potatoes and leave them in a bowl of water to prevent browning then add them just before baking.

It's also super easy to double or halve for bigger or smaller families, this quantity feeds three adults and a hungry 12 year old.

Oh Yummo...

It was quite chilly here today so thought I would be a good Mum and cook a warming Winter dessert. Golden Syrup Dumplings are a huge family favourite...very easy to make and cook while we are eating dinner. The ingredients are pantry staples too making it great to prepare impulsively.

Golden Syrup Dumplings...

Dumplings

1 cup SR raising flour
40g butter, chopped
1 egg
2-3 tblsp milk

Sauce

1 cup sugar
40g butter
2 tblsp golden syrup
1/4 cup lemon juice

Here's How You Do It...

1. Sift the flour and a pinch of salt into a bowl. Using your fingertips, rub in the butter until the mixture is fine and crumbly, and make a well in the centre. Using a flatbladed knife, stir the combined egg and milk into the flour mixture to form a soft dough.

2. To make the syrup, put 2 cups water in a large pan with the sugar, butter, golden syrup and lemon juice. Stir over medium heat until combined and the sugar has dissolved.

3. Bring to the boil, then gently drop dessertspoonfuls of the dough into the syrup. Cover and reduce the heat to a simmer. Cook for 20 minutes, or until a knife inserted into a dumpling comes out clean. Spoon onto serving plates and drizzle with some of the syrup.

Serve the dumplings immediately with whipped cream, ice cream or custard. They don't reheat well...tend to become rocks the next day, so you are going to have to eat them all...!!!

Enjoy...!!!

A Labour Of Love...

***Disclaimer...the lasagne pictured is not mine, although I'll admit, mine was a fair representation.

Wednesday afternoons/evenings are tricky here with kids sporting commitments and it makes for an interrupted evening meal.

So...at 5pm I take Myles to footy training, that finishes at 6.30...the round trip is about 20-25 minutes depending on traffic. I come home, make the final preparations for dinner then head off and pick him up, at the same time dropping Matilda at her 6.45pm cheerleading class. I then drop Myles back home and head back to pick Matilda up. Her class finishes at 7.45pm...mostly I take a drink, my book or The Australian crossword and my phone and wait in the car park...I usually manage a quick phonecall to stay in touch with friends. We fly home, really hungry by this stage and have dinner while watching Spicks & Specks. Last night I worked out that the time taken to do all of this was an hour and forty five minutes and 37.5 kilometres...phew...!!!

I like to be ahead of myself and try and have something ready that needs very little attention right at serving time. Our family has some pretty specific dietary needs...Josh & Myles have a number of food sensitivities and cannot have egg, dairy or nuts (with the exception of pine nuts, but they are seeds). Josh is also highly sensitive to eggplant, Myles has never had it but it's a sure bet he will be. Matilda is vegetarian but eats fish, dairy & eggs and I am highly allergic to crustaceans. John is the only family member who had escaped. As the boys have got older they are less sensitive and can have some dairy and egg.

All of this makes meal preparation "interesting" to say the least, last night I made a vegetable lasagne from the ground up, although I will own up to not making the lasagne sheets this time and used prepared ones instead. It is a labour of love...a labour intensive meal indeed. The vegetable sauce simmered for two hours through the afternoon, it smelled divine, ( or so the dorky Optus Representative who keeps coming to our door to try and get our custom back, but that's a whole post on it's own, told me)...the kids said that they love coming home from school when there are cooking smells. Matilda told me that she feels that I love them lots when she can smell dinner cooking.

Last night it just "worked"...the sauce/pasta/bechamel balance was exact...when the lasagne was cut you could see perfect layers, the salad was filled with greens from our garden and the potatoes golden & crunchy.

There is just enough leftover for my lunch today.

Life is kind sometimes.

Leftovers...

Cooked a sensational Shepherd's Pie for dinner tonight, mainly out of leftovers from roast lamb a few nights back. The meat was a little light on so I padded it out with grated zucchini, carrot, celery, onion and a can of tomatoes as well as about 200g of brown & green lentils...the lentils were a great addition. A little grated cheddar on top of the mashed potato & into the oven until golden & bubbling, just delicious.

It was well & truly devoured Myles even had seconds of everything, a rare thing.

There's something really very satisfying about making a new meal out of the remnants of another...I feel my grandmothers' influence (both of them) when I cook this way. They both hated waste and were very clever about using everything in the fridge or pantry. My paternal grandmother saved everything, buttons, collars & zips off clothing, pieces of string, the paper from a block of butter was used to grease cake tins, scraps of wool, wrapping paper, paper bags, glass jars, tin cans...ad infinitum. I guess it came from living through the depression. My grandfather was much the same with his shed...it was stacked to the rafters with scrap timber, corrugated iron, parts of car engines, tins of paint, lengths of hose & rope.

What I loved most about his shed though were his clocks. Pa was a truck mechanic for most of his life but his one great passion was watch and clock making and jewellery design. He had a zillion clocks in his shed, (well, that's how it seemed when I was little), mostly given to him by friends, most had seen better days but he nurtured them back to their former glory. The mantle clocks were my favourite, he used to let me wind them when I visited on the holidays. I had always yearned for one of my very own and I thought that would happen after he died but sadly it didn't. I don't know what became of them all, my father certainly doesn't have them now, I doubt he realised the sentimental value I held for them. Sad, really.

"Great Mummy" Award...

I was on the prowl for a new chicken recipe today and found this...Mediterranean Chicken Bake. Very simple and just delicious, we had it with risoni which I cooked in a little stock then stirred butter and parmesan through it. Lovely with a glass of red or white...!!! Everyone loved it, the boys all had seconds...there's even leftovers for Josh's dinner tomorrow.

I also made a very yummy apple crumble which we enjoyed with custard. Matilda told me that I had won a "Great Mummy" award tonight. Hmmm, she's very generous with her praise this week...yesterday I was a genius because I could still do year 9 algebra.


Here's the recipe...enjoy...