Day 101 - Salad mountain and some baked lamb

Lamb wrapped in proscuitto and baked with a pea, snowpea and feta salad.
Another Donna Hay recipe! This is from her 50 fast recipes that she does in the january cookbook.  The lamb is wrapped in proscuitto and baked for 20-25 mins - easy enough. The salad was divine. You could have it with ANYTHING. Blanch peas and snow peas, crumble some feta (recipe calls for ricotta but I thought that sounded a bland), some butter lettuce and a dressing of lemon juice, olive oil and crushed garlic. Awesome salad!!! Also got about a weeks worth of fibre from all the peas ;)

Day 100 - Spiced yoghurt grilled chicken skewers

The photo looks a bit blah, but this is an awesome dish - definately in the top 10!

This was one of those dishes that I stuffed up. For one thing the dish takes 30 to 40 minutes to prepare, which is not that good on a Monday because always has a late meeting on a monday. My second major error was that I forgot to tell Morry that I hadnt bought the hummus, but that he was meant to make it. And the third error was that I forgot to buy all of the ingredients.

But, wow, this was a GREAT dish!

Donna Hay, Simple dinners

1/4 cup corriander

1/4 cup flat leaf parsley

1 clove garlic, crushed

1 teaspoon smoked paprika

1 teaspoon ground cummin

2 teaspoons lemon zest

1 cup natural yoghurt

2 chicken breast (recipe says thigh but we used breast)

the recipe says to serve with flat bread, mache lettuce and store bought hummus. But dont buy it, make it and it tastes amazing.

Place everything but chicken in a bowl and mix, coat chicken pieces and set aside for 10 minutes. Preheat a griddle pan and grill chicken until just cooked. Serve with some sliced tomato and homemade hummus.

To make the hummus, blend a tin of chickpeas, garlic, lemon jiuuce, olive oil, cummin, pinch of chilli, salt and pepper. Blend and eat!!!

Great chocolate chip cookies for the return to school

Day 99 - Roast tomato, garlic and bread salad

OMG. If ever we were going to repeat a dish, this would be it.

Total perfection, yum yum, scrummy yum yum.

Here is the recipe and a hearty cheers to Donna Hay!

Roasted tomato, garlic and bread salad
serves 4 - apparently

500g Roma tomatoes halved
250g sourdough, broken into 1 inch pieces
12 cloves garlic, skin on
2 tablespoons whit balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup olice oil
1 tablespoon white balsamic vinegar extra
2 tablespoons water
4 cups rocket
12 slices proscuitto

preheat oven to 160. Place tomatoes, bread, garlic oil and vinegar in a bowl and toss to combine. Place on a baking tray lined with baking paper, and roast 40 minutes or until crisp and golden. Morry actually put the tomatoes in for an hour and half and only did the other things for 40 minutes. But either way would be delicous.

Remove garlic from tray and squeeze from skins, add oil, vinegar and water and mix to combine (with a bamix). Place tomatio and bread mixture in a bowl and toss with rocket. Divide between plates, spoon over dressing and top with proscuitto.

We had it with my least favourite variety of wine, sauvignon blanc and it was superb.

Lovely work Morry!

Day 98 - Salmon with caper and anchovy butter

Salmon is actually one of my favourite fish. Pan fried with caper and anchovy butter and served with watercress made the perfect dinner for me.

Caper and Anchovy butter
Soften a couple of tablespoons of butter, then add 2 teaspoons chopped capers, lemon zest from half a lemon, add 2 teaspoons parsley finely chopped and 1 anchovy fillet finely chopped, then pop it back in the freezer.

I think it would good with other pan fried fish like baramundi, but it is a strong flavour so the acompaniment should be a really simple flavour, the watercress was perfect.

Day 97 - left over heaven

Breakfast - Pauls bread reheated in the oven with jam, marmalade and coffee.

Lunch - Pauls bread spread with goats cheese and layered with leftover lamb and served with Jax salad leftovers.

Dinner - Angel hair pasta made with the left over prawns and Jeffs smoked trout and a bottle of Claudes passata. Here is the recipe;

garlic

white wine

Claudes pasta sauce

tomato paste

lemon zest

fresh oregano

cooked prawns & smoked trout

Saute chopped garlic in olive oil, add a dash of white wine and Claude homemade tomate sauce. Add a couple of teaspoons of tomato paste and reduce. Cook angel hair for 1 minute and add to sauce and cook for a further minute. Add fresh oregano and lemon zest, flake over the trout, toss thorugh the prawns. garnish with some parsley.

We served it with some left over white wine - love leftovers!!!

Day 96 - Australia Day

Paul is an internationally awarded baker of magnificent breads and pastries. He brought some bread to our backyard Australia Day lunch. I imagined a couple of good quality loaves but OMG!!! Check it out!!!!! There are not enough exlamation marks to express my gratitude and awe at his generousity and skill!

This bread is truly fantastic. You can buy the cobs as Paulos bread. I am loving my decision to empty the freezer a bit during the week, now its full of left over bread! Paul started baking at 4am!!!! Crikey it was worth it. I am resolved to stop making my own bread and just buy his. That is of course until I do his bread making course at the end of feb!! Check his desserts a bit later.

4kg of SA King Prawns served with Morrys homemade Aioli. He will kill me for this, but the recipe was digracefully easy so I will post it. Most recipes for aioli you make it from scratch in a food processor, but this was an adapted Donna Hay recipe. Best quality mayonaise, crushed garlic and a bit of lemon juice.

Jeff and Jacki made some smoked rainbow trout. Yes, I said MADE!!! Obviously they bought the fish, but they smoked it! It had a great flavour, very smoky, not as fishy as you get at the shops. definately better. Thanks guys!

The salads! I bought Banana Boys rocket salad (with the dressing on the side so it would keep a day) and sweet potato and betroot salad (not pictured) Jacki made a quinoa (yes pronounced keenwar - who knew! Oh, appartenly everyone but me) Jax salad was fab - had leftovers for dinner with more bread!

Morrys tomatoes
Ripe tomatoes
whole garlic cloves
fresh thyme and oregano
Morry cooked these for about 4 hours. Chop tomatoes in half, add other ingredients, season and drizzle in olive oil. Pur in the oven at 140degrees for an hour then reduce to 110 and leave it another couple of hours.
This is a great side dish as it doesnt require careful timing! 
Left overs can be eaten on fresh bread or put through a pasta. Shame there werent any leftovers :(

BBQ'd lamb and fried polenta. Lots of lamb left over - any ideas for using it up?

So here are the tarts.

Words cannot describe their splendor.

One was chocolate and pistachio, one was frangipane and plum and my favourite was the raspberry. It had a basil infused sponge inside. Enough said.

No leftovers

A big thanks to the guys who brought food. It was an indulgent afternoon, the quality of the food and wines makes me proud to be australian.

Incase you were wondering about the kids, they had vegimite sandwiches, watermelon and strawberries, hotdogs and hours of swimming in the pool with Nics fabulous nannies Meg and Dani. I forgot their dessert which was mini magnums and lamingtons - sorry aussie kids!

Day 95 - Steak and beans

Another quick and easy dinner!

At vast expense, I bought 2 steaks from Wilson, the butcher at Mitcham. Morry BBQd them, no marinade or anything like that. They were really tasty. It was such a good piece of meat, worth every penny. The beans were another misunderstanding. I was after a Canellini bean and tomato salad, which Morry cooked. I was thinking something nice and light to accompany the meat with a lemony kind of dressing, but this was kind of a cassolet. It was very nice.

I think I need to put in a bit more effort with the recipes again. Australia day tomorrow so Ill get back to it after that!

Day 94 - cheese and Peroni

Had a very busy day. No dinner planned so I'm having a peroni with cheese and biscuits and sweet gherkin. That's a balanced meal right there, carb, protien and veg. Actually I'm not sure a gherkin is veg but atleast it's green!

Day 93 - Slow cooked beef

We are having a lunch on Australia Day for a few friends, so we are beginning to get things ready. Tonights dish was chosen for 2 reasons. 1. clear freezer space & 2 a no fuss dinner that can be ready when Morry comes home with little effort, so that we can get on with getting ready for thursday!

The answer is a beef roast done in the slow cooker! I browned the meat in the fry pan and put it in the slow cooker at about 10am on low with some carlic cloves and a cup of beef stock. When Morry got home from his meeting sometime after 7, dinner was ready. He made a gravy with the juices from the slow cooker and a bit of flour, then we added a rocket salad and horseradish. Really tasty! Something like this would be great for a family dinner.

Day 92 - Olive pasta

Family dinner tonight! Morry made a basic tomato sauce with green olives and kalamata olives. There was NONE left. Everyone ate the lot. Yummo Morry!

Day 91 - The Victory Hotel

Dinner for Debs birthday was at the Victory hotel. I should have taken photos becuase my food was lovely. I started with an heirloom tomato bruschetta with goats cheese that was great, I followed it with a quail, haloumi and watermelon salad. Also very good. For dessert I had a passionfruit tart. Should have skipped dessert!

I will go back!

Day 89 risotto & Day 90 The Old Vine

At the shack for the weekend, so no photos and a delay in posting, becuase there is no internet access down there!

We went to The Old Vine cafe for dinner with the boys. They ate pizza, Morry had a slow cooked beef cheeck and I had a pork sholder. It was ok. The service and atmosphere was great. I will definately go back!

Woops missed a night! Thursday night we had a prawn and salmon risotto. I cant remember what recipe Morry used. It was ok, but there are benefits to 'only ever once' - sorry Morry!

Day 88 - beef skewers

Another Donna Hay recipe! Sirloin steak skewered on lemongrass with chilli and baby spinach, served on rice with a bit of coconut cream.

Day 88 - Nic and kids to lunch

I made a few salads but, what with all the kids and the wine, I completely forgot to take a photo! I made a butter lettuce, avocado, spring onion, caper and boiled egg salad and a mango, red onion, cucumber and chiili salsa to have with leg ham. Kids had nicoise.

This is dessert, brownies, strawbs and mango.

Day 87 -

Day 86 - Morrys red chicken curry

Ahhh, just like old times!

Dinner for one, only this time Morry made it for me before he went away. No idea what recipe he used but it was lovely. I served it with sticky rice.

Day 86 - Star of Greece

Saturday night with Deb at Port Willi! We went to the Star of Greece twice on saturday. In the afternoon for a champers - we would have had another glass but the queue at the kiosk was outrageously long ans slow. Maybe another person serving wouldnt be a bad idea in peak times? Just a thought.

Dinner on their deck was fine. The food was fine. The service was fine, when we got it. We would have had another wine and dessert and probably coffees, but we couldnt get the waitress to come back.

I wonder if they realise that they could double their profits by simply serving their existing customers all that they want?

Day 84 - Spice Roasted Chicken with Chips

Family dinner!

I wasnt sure if the boys (2 & 5) would get into the spicy chicken but I gave it a go anyway. Its was 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper and 1 tspn each smoked paprika and seasalt, 1 tblspn chopped thyme & olive oil as a rub for chicken pieces. Roasted with sebago potatoes cut into wedges. The recipe (from Donna Hay magazine feb/march11) said to cook for half an hour, but I cooked it for an hour and it could have gone longer.

We had it with a rocket salad, but I bought the rocket from the markets and it wasnt that good. Hugo didnt try the rocket, Charlie did and spat it back on his plate ... but they loved the rest.

Next family dinner I will try something similar as the wolfed down 3 drumsticks and plate full of potato each.

Orange cake for dessert. Its a great recipe as it is all done in a food processor - you blend an entire orange, skin and all! So its a very zesty cake!

Day 83 - date night!

No photo tonight. Experimenting with my phone and it won't let me upload a photo... Anyway, we went Charminar on the parade for datenight and had the tandoori mixed plate as an entree. The lamb was the best and the two chichen thighs were quite tasty but the minced thing in a stick was ordinary.... We also had Beef Malibar which is a very mild curry with tomato and coconut - the beef equivalent of butter chicken I think! The Dahl Mughani was good and the garlic naan was equally tasty. It's nice Indian but India was better!

Day 82 - Pan fried lamb with tomato & rosemary sauce

From a recipe book called Pure Taste that I bought over a decade ago, this dish feels hearty but is nice and lean as well.


It is worth making, so here is the recipe.

You will need;
2 tsp olive oil
2 veal or lamb steaks
1 tblspn rosemary, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 small red chilli, finely chopped
400g canned tomato
2 tsp tomato paste
450g sweet potato
1 cup baby spinach

Heat 1 tsp oil in a frypan and cook veal or lamb until browned on both sides.

Heat the rest of the oil in same pan, add rosemary, garlic and chilli and fry until aromatic. add canned tomoates, tomato paste, mix well and bring to the boil. simmer uncovered about 10 minutes and sauce thickens. Season to taste. Return veal or lamb to pan and simmer until veal is heated through.

steam sweet potato, season and mash! Serve veal on a bed of sweet potato and baby spinach and spoon over the sauce.

Day 81 - Roast pumpkin with cashews and sesame seeds

Make this Jax!

This is a vegetarian dish full of flavour. A tangy dressing over roasted pumpkin and cashews - hmmm.

Toss 1kg pumpkin wedges and red onion wedges in oil, arrange on a baking dish. Bake at 200 for an hour.

During the last 5 minutes of cooking, place 60g cashews and 1 tblsp sesame seeds on another tray and bake for 5 mins or until golden.

Make a dressing of 1 tblsp each olive oil & lemon juice, 1 tspn dijon mustard. Season with salt & pepper.

Arrange pumpkin and onion on a serving plate, top with cashews and sesame seeds, drizzle over dressing and garnish with chopped parsley.

Dinner done. yum.

Dark Chocolate and Raspberry Tart

This recipe is from the French Kitchen by Serge Dansereau. Recipe provided due to popular demand! Be warned, its really naughty and delightfully addictive. A moment in the mouth, a life time on the hips be damned!

Chocolate Base
120g butter, softened
125g caster sugar
150g plain flour
50g cocoa powder

Lightly grease an 11 x 34cm rectangle mould.

Put the butter and sugar in the bowl of the glorious kenwood (or similar) with K beater attached. Beat for 2 mins on medium. Sift together the flour and cocoa and add to butter mixture until combined. Push dough into a ball, wrap in cling film and refridgerate about an hour.

Roll out pastry between two baking sheets (until about 3mm thick) and line the pan. Break off the bits that hang over the edge and patch any holes! Return to fridge for another hour or so.

Preheat oven to 180. Pierce dough with a fork and then bake 15 minutes or until crisp.  Allow to cool. The base will keep for a few days in a dry environment.

* for Morrys work colleagues, he didn't roll the pastry so it was much thicker than it should have been. Rolling it makes it nice and thin and crispy!

Chocolate Ganache
300ml pouring cream
400g dark bittersweet chocolate
250g raspberries - or more!

Put the cream in a saucepan over medium heat and bring to boil, then remove from the heat. Add the chocolate and stir until chocolate has melted and it looks rich and glossy.

Arrange raspberries over the tart base and then pour ganache over the top. Refrigerate 4 hours to set the chocolate.

The recipe says to bring it back to room temperate to serve but I think it is better a bit cool, particularly on a hot day. I suggest you make it more than once and experiment with that bit! I have also served it with different berries and think you could make it beautifully with blackberries.

Day 80 - Sausage and lentils

Someone left the freezer door ajar last night, resulting in lots of defrosted sausages. Im not blaming anyone in particular, but I am sure it wasnt me...

This recipe is a bit of a mix of 2 recipes. One from the smart food smart kids cookbook ive talked about before and another from Tuscan cooking, this fabulous cookbook that we bought a few years ago on a trip to Tuscany. We spent about 10 days in an apartment in Sienna and bought this cookbook at the local supermarket. The recipes are really different to what we have in other italian cookbooks that we have bought here!

It is a simple recipe, garlic and onion sauteed, suasages, lentils and tomatoes added, a bit of stock and sage - add wine and voila! dinner.

Day 79 - Burmese chicken curry

Make this dish!

Its the best curry and one we have had before. It is a total favourite, so much so that I am providing the recipe.

a good handfull of fried shallots (available from asian grocers)
1 tablespoon butter
2 Tablespoons red curry paste
2 tablespoons yellow curry powder
8 Chicken thighs
2 cups water
1/3 cup fish sauce
3 tablespoons sugar
1 cup milk
1 cup tomato wedges


Heat a , add butter, curry paste and curry powder, stir and cook 2 mins.

Add the chicken and continue to cook on high for 5 mins. Add the water and the rest of the ingredients except the fried shallots, reheat to boiling and cook for 60 - 90 minutes - until the chicken thighs are falling apart.

Serve with cold beer, jasmin rice and topped with fried shallots.

Day 78 - The Marquis

Im 40!

Dinner at the Marquis was great. I will post a photo of the giant slab of meat that we consumed. The wines were really great - spectacular almost. We had white called Soave, a garganega grape - Ive never heard of it but I would have it again in an instant. It was italian and absolutlely my kind of thing. Then we had a red that was so perfect for me I accidently got drunk and Morry had to take me home early! It was Rosso from Tuscany ... the rest is kind of blurry.

Day 77 - BBQ in the park

Its my birthday! Well sort of. To celebrate the last day of 39 we had a picnic in the park with the boys and my mum & dad.

My favourite foods, no recipes. A rocket salad (Oh, surprise!) with pear and walnuts and lemon juice and olive oil dressing - magnificent! My favourite tomato salad - really ripe tomatoes with a bit of spring onion and balsamic glaze - yummo. The rest was just to balance out the meal. a bit of focaccia and kebabs bought from Haydons. It was the salad and the beers and wines that I was most interested in.

Day 76 - One Day

Movie night at Sarahs. We watched One Day. The book was better. I took some Oysters as I am a recent convert to natural oysters - I could have eaten the lot myself!

Day 75 - crayfish & chardonnay

CRAYFISH!!!! good good good!~

Served with a bit of crayfish sauce - mayo and tomato sauce, a squeeze of lemon! And Morrys potato bake - chunky potatoes topped with parmesan and baked. It complimented the cray really well.

Chardy almost gone now.

Day 74 - Tapas

God, im stuffed! A huge baking day. I made some rye rolls for the freezer this is my first go at Brioche - Magnificent!!! Recipe is from the Commonsense Baking guide that I bought recently and is my new bible.

Tapas for dinner - how good do these tomatoes look! Slow roasted seasoned and drizzled in olive oil, lots of whole garlic cloves and fresh thyme. Hmmm

Tapas. oh yeah! Mushrooms fried in olive oil and garlic with a bit of parsley. The tomatoes - oh god they were great. Lime drizzled prawns and chicken kebabs with coriander and cumin.  And of course I made bread - kind of ciabatta - worked well.

Day 73 - Feast

A big day in food! Debbie, Jess & Lynton came to lunch - Debbie bought the lunch! I made some focaccia which worked well.

I also made some muffins - from my new Commonsense Baking cookbook. These were great - made with oats and natural yoghurt and loads of raspeberries.

We ate so much during the day that we needed an old favourite dinner - Keema & Kingfisher.

Day 72 - Morry's Deconstructed Greek salad

Morry is on holidays. He cooks with out recipes. This was a pantry surprise BBQ dinner in the back yard. Fillet steak, Goats cheese, kalamata olives, tomato and basil drizzled in oil, and toasted ciabatta.

BLT's for lunch!

Day 71 - New Years Eve

No photos again!

Dinner at Paul and Ela's with Roman and Scana. It was a casual dinner, where we all bought a platter.

Our platter had Morrys home made Hommus which is simply devine. Some Maggie Beer Duck liver pate - too rich for me. Boursin cheese and red grapes and some of the Basso Salami.

Nice work Morry!

Day 70 - BBQ at Willunga playground

No camera today either - think we must have been too relaxed!

BBQ sausages for the boys and chicken for us. Morry made a rub of ground coriander and cumin for the chicken and we had soft white bread sandwiches, with a bit of mayo and baby spinach and some tomatoes. A few more beers.

No wonder we are so relaxed!

Day 69 - A shark ate Doggy

No photos today. We went to the Willunga Pub for dinner. We both had a Chicken Parmigiana and a couple of beers. The boys had equally standard pub grub. Fish and chips for Hugo and Nuggets and chips for Charlie.

Doggy got lost - suspect he was eaten by the stuffed shark in the restaurant. Bless Ikea for having replacement stock!

Day 68 - Russells

We had quite a few pizzas - supreme for the kids, seafood, Turkish lamb and Chilli Chicken for us.

Morry could have been anything really. He is a magician in the kitchen but equally handy with the camera. This is inside Russells. Not sure where - I dont share Morrys eye. Wish I did.

The kids had fun

Day 67 - At the Shack

We spent a week at the shack eating out almost every night. This is the only night that Morry cooked. He webered a boned lamb roast and made a salad of left overs from the fridge. A few beers, some wine - very relaxing