Day 66 - Morrys couscous & beef salad

O M G. This was a taste sensation

It seems we have been eating lots of quick dishes lately, too rushed and time poor in the lead up to xmas to really plan our dinners. Ive skipped dinner several times in the last week, or knocked off the boys left overs, but now that xmas is past, and Morry is on holidays, there is time again to think and create.

Can you believe that this is a pantry suprise dinner?

It was so rich in flavour. If there is one dish so far that you try, this needs to be it!

Marinate meat in Terriyaki sauce salt & white pepper for an hour or so, then BBQ, and let it rest.  Make a salad of baby spinach, orange slices, orange zest, toasted pine nuts, couscous, (but no ordinary couscous, it was Thistle be good, roasted almond and cardamon couscous - a christmas present to Morry), and dressed in lemon juice and olive oil. Give it a go - it was truly magnificent.

Day 65 - Christmas Day

A dozen natural oysters to start - thanks mum.

Our Crayfish - looks tasty

Our Feast - The Cray, served , a ham, glazed in Apricot jam and Countreau and stuck all over with cloves from Allrecipes.com.au, Turkey breast - stuffed with white bread crumbs, Chorizo, parmesan, nutmeg, parsely, Thyme and Preserved Lemon squished up with an egg. Potato salad from taste.com.au and a beetroot, orange and walnut salad from the current Womens Weekly christmas cookbook. 

Like we needed it, but dessert was from the French Kitchen by Serge Dansereau, a cookbook given to Morry by some of the guys he works with.  I made the Ganache a la framboise, or as we aussies say, Dark Chocolate and Raspberry tart. Morry had made this recipe for his colleagues a few weeks ago but I made this one and to be honest, think it was better. I rolled the dough to form a thinner crust, served it at room temperature and added blueberries. It was decadent!

Day 62 - Sausage and lentils & cupcakes

There was no way to make this dinner look good, but it tasted great. Morry had a drinks show that ran a many hours over time, so I had dinner with the boys. This recipe comes from Smart Food, Smart Kids by R Murdock. It is super easy and tasted really great. Saute onion in some olive oil, and add a few sausages cut into 1 inch chuncks, browned them a bit, add a tin of lentils, some powdered chicken stock and passata (recipe calls for a tin of tomato, but Hugo doesnt like anything that looks like tomato, so I always use passata and call it tomato sauce)

My favourite chocolate cupcakes for the boys come from Lucinda Scala's cookbook, Mad Hungry. They are the easiest chocolate cakes as they dont contain butter. I think they are a healthier option for two boys who love a cupcake! they are sort of like a sweat bread with a bit of cocoa! And then I ice them and add smarties ... health benefit gone - but then so are the cupcakes within a day!

Day 64

Spanish Rice from the Ricerecipe.com web site. It had good flavour but was a bit gluggy. It was vegetarian - onion, green chilli, chilli powder, garlic powder and tomato sauce, all cooked like a paella with long grain white rice.

Day 61 - Cherry Tomato and Tuna pasta

Morry makes amazing tuna pasta, it is true comfort food and an absolute gift. This one has garlic and onion sauted, a tin of cherry tomatoes, sirena  tuna a bit of chicken stock and some fresh basil. Magnificent! Tinned Cherry tomatoes are a bit hard to come by, but I get mine at Imma & Marios. I buy them by the case!

Day 61 - Fruit toast

This has to be my all time favourite breakfast. Home made bread, this one is soy and linseed, drizzled in honey and topped with fruit. Today was blackberries and raspberries. Oh Yum!

Day 60 - Green Chicken Curry

This is Morrys recipe - I dont even really know what went in it - definately coconut milk, fish sauce, probably a bit of brown sugar, then obviously Chicken and all the green stuff - brocolli, beans, coriander, mind and basil. The base is of course green curry paste which I make in batches and freeze. Then served on jasmin rice. served with a yalumba Verdhelo. yummo Morry.

Day 59 - the gingerbread house

We had Morrys family xmas dinner today and were completely slack with the photos. Morry made a ham to take which was magnificent and I made a gingerbread house to take for the boys to decorate to keep them entertained. The only photo I took was superman cleaning up. It was a great evening though. Lots of fun and food. The ham was the best!

Day 58 - Swordfish the Florentine way

Morry made swordfish like he had in Florence, with a salsa verde, some creamy mash and a panzanella salad. It was a bit rich for me and a bit too big a serving, I'm not normally fussy with these things but this one wasnt my favourite.

Day 56 & 57

No Photos. Ive been out and about doing xmas shopping and havent really eaten. I have shopped and read my new book Diana Gabaldon's Cross Stitch - brilliant book.

Day 55 - Lamb and Lentil Salad

I think that this is one of the best dishes we have had since starting this food blog - certainly for a mid week dinner. The Lamb and Lentil Salad recipe is from the Womens Weekly Simply Salads cookbook. It didnt take long - most of the time was BBQing the lamb!

If you dont have the book, this is what we did. Combine a teaspoon of ground cumin and olive oil and rub on lamb, BBQ and then rest for 5 minutes. I used a tin of green lentils, half a red onion sliced thinly, steamed green beans, roasted walnuts, parsley and crumbled feta, then slice the lamb over the top. The dressing was 2 tablespoons olive oil and lemon juice, 1 tablespoon pomegranate molasses and 2 teaspoons light brown sugar.

Here is tonights sunset. All in all, a lovely evening.

Day 54 - Shizuan Chicken and Brocollini

This recipe comes from the Donna Hay book, The Instant Entertainer. It is a midweek dinner party, served with peanut noodles, but as it was just Morry & I we didnt have the noodles, just loads of brocollini.

Chicken is tossed in the Shizuan pepper, Chinese Five Spice, Salt and fresh diced chilli, stirfried with the brocollini. Morry added chopped mint, spring onions and toasted cashews. He has a splendid knack for cooking the chicken to perfection, just cooked breast is beautifully moist.

Nice one Morry.

Day 53 - Morrys meat balls

I think Morry made this recipe up. It had bread (soaked in milk) and parsley, fennel, sage, mint and pork and veal mince, all mushed up. Served with Sweet Potato chips and Rocket. Morry thought my meatballs were better - I thought so too  ;)

Day 52 - Lunch at Debs

Morrys magnificent tart - Blackberries! Divine. This is an old recipe of Morry's - if you want the recipe I am happy to type it up. It is brilliant!

Debs Panzanella

The Wines!

Lunch for 14 - but there were only 7 of us! Deb catered for giants!

Morry made us some macaroni cheese and tomato for dinner to soak up all the drinks

Day 52 - Cup cakes

We are having lunch at Claude and Debs today and Morry & I are taking dessert. I made cupcakes for the kids and Morry intends to make a strawberry tart for the adults. He isnt out of bed yet and the boys have swimming soon ... no pressure honey.

Day 51 - Jac & Dion to dinner!

Dion is a beer connoisseur. This is an early sample.

Almond Roasted Chicken from Donna Hay Simple Dinners p85. There were a few ingredients so I wont list them. They recommend the dish be served with a mint and feta salad, but that seemed a bit light on the veg for me, so we had this fabulous salad, pea, feta and mint. I could have just had the salad! No recipe for this salad, I explained to Morry what I thought would be nice and he went ahead and made it... god hes good!

This is an adapted Chocolate Meringue Mess from the same book, p182 The actual recipe has no raspberries and uses cream instead of yoghurt. I dont like cream at all, so I replaced a few things. It is the easiest dessert.

Meringues broken up, Raspberries in a bowl, The Yoghurt Shops Vanilla Bean Yogurt and chocolate sauce (100g dark chocolate, 1/4 cup of cream and bit splosh of Frangelico, melted over low heat). Pop it in the middle of the table and let people help themselves.

Day 50 - Nic & Paul to dinner

No Time to Cook has to be one of Donna Hays best recipe books. Its a couple of years old, but almost every picture makes me hungry and they all turn out brilliantly. Nic & Paul came to dinner and we had Peppered Pork with Apple Slaw (page 36) Basically it is pepper and chilli flakes sprinkled over pork steaks and then bbq'd - too easy. The apple slaw is grated green apple and white cabbage, dressed in 1/4 cup real mayo mixed with a generous tablespoon of honey. I could eat this salad all day. Hope it was enough to fill up Nic and Paul though. In hindsight it might have been a bit of light dinner.... I didnt notice though, as they bought a bottle of Moet and a Shaw & Smith, so once Id knocked off the wines I moved onto the frangelico....

Peppermint tea and white xmas and panforte to finish, both recipes from Silvias Cucina.

Day 49 - Dahl for one

Right. Well, we were meant to be having Caramelized Balsamic tomatoes and Chicken for dinner, but Morry is still at xmas drinks so I have raided the freezer and come up with some Dahl. A bit of yoghurt, some chopped tomatoes and importantly, a nice cold Heineken - Dinner for one, done.

Day 48 - Police Union 100 year anniversary dinner

No photos, but we had dinner at the town hall to celebrate the 100 year anniversary of the SA Police Union. The police band was the definite highlight!

Day 47 - Proscuitto, Tomato and Pesto Pasta

This is a pantry surprise dinner for one. Morry is out for dinner so I have used up leftovers in the fridge. The pesto and proscuitto were leftovers from Saturday night. I grilled the proscuitto and slow roasted the tomatoes. Tossed the pesto through some angel hair pasta. Yum!

Day 46 - Morry where is the camera?

Morry bought back the camera, so im updating an old entry. Chicken Stir fry! Morry made this, adapting the ingredients that we had to a recipe he downloaded from Taste.com I think

Day 45 - BlackOut

After a fabulous pizza feast at Deb and Andy Dunns house for lunch, we were after a light dinner. We had roast veggies - nothing exciting, but no photo - not enough light for the camera to focus properly ... but here was breakfast...

I had a sleep in this morning and Morry made me breakfast when I got up - Oh yum! A perfect start to the day

Day 44 - dinner with Anna and Kym

This recipe for tray baked pork comes from Valli Little's cookbook 'Faking it'. This dish is easy and awesome. Its pork fillet rubbed in oil, finely chopped rosemary and garlic and then wrapped in Proscuitto. Your boil the potato for 5 mins before roasting for 20, then you add the pork and the tomato. Bake for another 15 - 20 minutes and serve with home made Pesto. I use the Stephani Alexander recipe for pesto - 1 cup basil, 2 cloves garlic, 3 tablespoons pine nuts and oil whizzed in a food processor, when almost chopped I add 4 tablespoons of parmesan cheese. I think this dish was spectactular. The flavours are amazing and it so easy to serve for a dinner party.

Dessert was from the Donna Hay, The Instant Entertainer. Its actually a breakfast dish. Mango and raspberries served with a Rosewater Syrup (1 cupe water, 1/2 cup sugar and a teaspoon of rosewater simmered for 5 mins) and we served it with Vanilla Bean Yoghurt - not home made. The yoghurt shop makes better yoghurt than me!

If that wasnt enough, we ended the meal with some peppermint tea, dark chocolate and strawberries!

Day 43 - Rack of Lamb

We have never had one of these before! Morry used an anchovy and garlic marinade from the Donna Hay 10 minute cookbook, it was meant for lamb cutlets but obviously tasted fine on the rack - only differnece is it took almost an hour to cook - well maybe not that long, but it felt like it! The tomato and cos lettuce really cut through the fat of the lamb. Its not my favourite meat - thats a lump of fat on the top of the lamb rack. By the time I had cut that off, there wasnt too  much else to eat. Im still hungry! Still, it tasted great.

Day 42 - Chicken Korma

Recipe off the jar of Pataks Korma paste but I added some toasted almonds and coriander and served it with a Chapatti. Im a bit funny with bought pastes but the Pataks pastes dont make me sick and taste just fine! An easy dinner was required as Morry had to work late.

Day 41 - Roast Chicken Salad

This started out as a Nigella Lawson recipe for Roast Chicken Salad, but somehow morphed into roast chicken on rice with a few extras. The chicken breast was marinated in sherry, garlic oil salt and pepper for 20 minutes and then roasted in the oven. That much was in the Nigella recipe, but it was supposed to be served on salad greens, but I felt like rice, so Morry obliged with some sticky rice - oh yum! it was served with toasted pine nuts and sultanas.