Masterchef

On Saturday evening my resident masterchef cooked up a lovely dinner from our latest cook book purchase, Jamie Oliver's 30 Minute Meals.

We'd seen the 30 min meals show on TV and when Glen saw this recipe for Piri Piri Chicken he wanted to get the book. Wellllllll.... I hopped online and bought the book right away, any chance of not having to cook myself and I take it :)

So here he is at work.

It was a great way to make use of our vegie garden as the Lemon Thyme, Parsley, Coriander, Chillies etc were all home grown.

Here it is ready to go into the oven.

And dished up with the sweet potato and feta mash - YUUUM!

You can get the recipe here, it's really delish! And then we watched 'The Blind Side' on DVD, it was a really good movie.

How was your weekend? What did you get up to?

Have a great Monday,

Playing Nurse

I've been playing nurse over the past day as both bubby and hubby have colds. Bubby is holding up better than hubby, but now I'm feeling exhausted too!

Image via here

I took Will to the doctor yesterday afternoon to get a new script for his croup medication which we'd run out of (poor bubba seems to get his croupy cough as soon as a runny nose hits).

And during the 1hr wait, he demonstrated his new walking skills to the entire waiting room which brought on cheers and claps from the onlookers. It was so cute! Everyone in the waiting room was asking about him and as we left we had 'Bye William', 'Good bye William' from his new fan club. So sweet!

So to try and make my boys better I made Cream of Cauliflower Soup last night for dinner. I don't know if Cream of Cauliflower has any healing properties like chicken or vegetable soup does but I had lots of Cauliflower to use so that's what they got and boy oh boy was it delicious!

Here is the recipe if you're interested:

Cream of cauliflower soup
Ingredients (serves 4)

* 1 tablespoon olive oil
* 1 brown onion, finely chopped
* 2 garlic cloves, crushed
* 2 teaspoons ground coriander
* 1 teaspoon ground cumin
* 1/4 teaspoon chilli flakes
* 750g cauliflower, trimmed, cut into florets
* 2 cups vegetable stock
* 2 cups water
* 1/4 cup cream or creme fraiche

Method
1. Heat oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and garlic. Cook, stirring, for 6 to 7 minutes or until very soft.

2. Add coriander, cumin and chilli flakes. Increase heat to high. Cook, stirring, for 2 minutes. Add cauliflower, stock and water. Cover. Bring to the boil. Reduce heat to low. Simmer, partially covered, for 30 minutes or until cauliflower is tender. Set aside for 20 minutes.

3. Blend soup in batches until smooth. Return to saucepan. Stir in cream. Stir over low heat until hot. Season with salt and pepper.

Mmmmmm.... I never realised that Cauliflower as a soup would be so yummy but it was!
That's what I find is great about getting Aussie Farmer's Direct fruit and veg box delivered. They only give you fruit and veg in season and because you get a selection and quantity of things that you might not normally choose yourself, it forces you to be more creative with your cooking - well that's what I find anyway. And it supports our local farmers, the quality is better than coles or woolies and it reduces carbon emissions as your bananas aren't being flown in from Brazil or anything!

So it's another quiet day for me today, just doing orders and wiping snotty noses :)

I hope you have a lovely day and thank you everyone for sharing in my exciting news yesterday and for your sweet comments about our big milestone. It makes me so happy to share and your comments are so generous and sweet so thank you!

A yummy recipe

On Tuesday night I made a roast chicken, there was a bit of chicken left over so I thought I would just serve the same the next night. But by the time that dinner came around G and I weren't really in the mood for it again and G suggested pasta.

Hmmm I thought, what do I have in the cupboard/fridge...

I had my stock standard staples of ricotta, cherry tomatoes, baby spinach and pecorino. So I googled these ingredients and here is the recipe I found!

Spaghetti with Cherry Tomatoes, Ricotta, Spinach and Pecorino
By Bill Granger from bill's food

via here

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 750 g Cherry Tomatoes
• 4 Garlic Cloves sliced
• 1 Red Onion thinly sliced
• 1 handful Fresh Oregano
• 100 ml Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 500 g Fresh Spaghetti
• 50 g Baby English Spinach
• 200 g Fresh Ricotta
• Freshly Ground Black pepper
• 75 g Pecorino Cheese grated

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180ºC (350ºF/Gas 4).
2. Put the tomatoes, garlic, onion and oregano on a baking tray and drizzle with the oil.
3. Roast for 20–25 minutes or until wilted.
4. Cook the pasta in a large saucepan of boiling salted water until al dente.
5. Drain and toss with the tomato mixture, spinach and half the ricotta.
6. Divide among serving bowls and top with the remaining ricotta and some freshly ground pepper.
7. Serve with the grated pecorino.

It was deeeeeeelish! I used Penne rather than spaghetti and I tossed some of the roast chicken shredded into the pasta too. We grow oregano in our vegie garden so that was fine and I used a brown onion instead of a red which was perfectly fine too!

It's gone into my recipe folder and I can see it being a family fav from now on so I thought I'd share it with all you lovely ladies!!!

Have a terrific Friday,

Roasted pumpkin salad with honey and balsamic dressing

As the cooler weather is approaching us here in Sydney, it's nice to get into more hearty salads. And I think this Roasted pumpkin and spinach salad hits the mark.

I have made it a few times before but today will be a bit different.
I am making a variation of this salad for our ladies church group lunch that we are having at my friend's house down the road today. And instead of using the Baby Spinach (which I LOVE) I will be using my own produce! YAY!

Sorry, I couldn't be bothered rotating the photo.

This is a small sample of the lettuce we have been growing in our veggie garden the past month and I'm so excited as it's been growing like crazy lately with more than I know what to do with. So into the salad bowl it will go, along with a few shallots thrown in for good measure too :)

I will have to take a pic of our veggie garden to show you sometime soon; as it is Glen's baby with a Fort Knox-like security system to keep the little furry intruders out.

So back to my salad...
I'll be using our home-grown lettuce, pumpkin I roasted last night, pine nuts I toasted last night and I thought I would sprinkle some feta on top too. And below is the dressing recipe.

Honey and balsamic dressing

• 1/4 cup honey
• 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• 1 tablespoon olive oil

Yum, I hope it turns out well and is enjoyed.
And I hope that you have a lovely day too!!!

Ceviche Delights

We had some friends stay over the weekend who are travelling around Australia at the moment. Fabbyy who is from Ecuador showed me how to make Ceviche for dinner! Yum!

Hubby and I have both had Ceviche once before, over 10 years ago and the flavour and freshness was still etched in our minds. So it was a real treat to have a wonderful feast of it for dinner. We went to the fish markets to buy the prawns (and have a beautiful seafood lunch there too of course).

The prawns are cooked for a short time on the stove in boiling water, just till you get the slight orange tinge then you take them off the boil and they cook in a bowl of lemon juice! You use lots of coriander, tomatoes both diced and pureed, a bit of orange juice, olive oil, salt and pepper and Spanish onions chopped finely. Served with rice... it's Heaven!!!!

It was such a nice time spent with them and we were sad to see them head back on the road today. Here is a picture of Will and their little boy Blythe playing together in the backyard. So cute!
Try one of these recipes when you're in a summer seafood mood:

Prawn ceviche with guacamole and white corn tortillas

Prawn Ceviche

Have a great day,