Day 220 - Mark & Catherine

Dom, caviar, Poussin, brown sugar puddings, cheese...

Day 219 - Pork & Egg

Day 218 - Butcher boys to dinner

Made spagetti Bolognese and some bread

Day 217 - Tomato pasta

No food in the fridge - pantry pasta. May need to shop before we go

Day 216 - Soy & Linseed loaf

Day 215 - Mussaman chicken curry

Cant remember a thing about this dish. Rushing to the airport. SHould have done blog sooner.

Pictures only

Day 214 - Morrys soup

Day 213 - Beef pies

Friday's stew became Saturday's beef pie.

Morry slow roasted the tomatoes for ages in a slow oven with olive oil and some salt. He put the stew in a dish, topped it with pastry and baked it for about 20 minutes. Add some steamed snow peas and dinner is done!

Day 212 - Stirling Hotel

I was organised today, and made a beef stew in the slow cooker. In my defence I did it quite early in the day and then went out and forgot about it. In the afternoon Catherine suggested we go to the pub for dinner so we jumped at the chance to go out with her and Mark.

Of course, when I got home I realised I had made a sstew, so i put it in the fridge for another day.

At the Stirling Hotel, I drank too much, ate too little, should have gone home a bit earlier - my head hurt the next day!

We went to the restaurant at the pub and everyone elses dinner looked lovely but my steak was a bit too tough to eat. Atleast my dessert was yummy - a pear thing, but I am really fuzzy on the details...

Day 211 - Pork roast

This dish was great but it took a bit of time - I think it was worth the effort but a it tricky for a week night! Here is the recipe

Day 210 - Balsamic tomatoes

This could be the easiest dinner ever made.

Pan fry a chicken fillet. Keep warm while you make the tomatoes. Slice up some ripe sweet tomatoes and toss them in the fry pan with tomatoes and balsamic vinegar. Pan fry for a few minutes and bobs your uncle, your done. Serve with Basil.

tasty!

Day 209 - Pot sticker dumplings

This is possibly Donna Hays best recipe EVER! It was so tasty. I just cant find the recipe now, but here is a similar one of hers - the dipping sauce that we made was hoising and soy sauces and served with steamed choy sum. The wontons are surprisingly easy to make - it looks fiddly, but really wasnt too hard or time consuming. I might make them for the boys.

Too Good!

Day 208 - Cajun Chicken with Avocado, lime and chilli salsa

Make this!

4 small chicken breasts
1 tbs sweet paprika
pinch of cayenne pepper
1 avocado
2 tbs lime juice
1 long green chilli, seeds removed and sliced lengthways
2 tbs freshly snipped chives
olive oil spray
250g steamed green beans

Cut each breast into 3 thin pieces, then toss in the combined paprika and cayenne to lightly coat. Set aside.

Heat a large frypan over high heat and spray with oil. Cook chicken in batches for 2 minutes each side until cooked

Steam your beans, make the dressing and serve!
serves 4.

Day 207 - Coriander Chicken Curry

This recipe comes from Donna Hay No Time to Cook. It was a full flavoured curry!

Worth making if you have the cookbook!

Day 206 - Lamb Stifado

Im not posting this recipe as I would not recommend you make it.

Oh horrid dish!

It came from the womens weekly slow cooker 2 cookbook. Never again.

Just so blah.

Day 205 - Pumpkin salad

This dish was so very tasty. Roasted pumpkin on a bed of baby spinach with feta and almonds and a totally delicious dressing.

Great dinner. Click here for the recipe

Day 204 - Spicy lentil soup

This spicy lentil soup recipe came from the slow cooker 2 cookbook and it was easy and tasty.

Cook, 1/2 cup of red lentils with 4 cups of chicken stock, 2 garlic cloves, a tin of tomatoes, 1/2 cup of mild curry paste (I used tikka paste), 2 bay leaves, 1 celery stick copped, 2 carrots and 2 potatoes, all in the slow cooker for 6 hours on low.

Serve with some yoghurt and coriander!

Day 203 - Grilled lemon chicken and greek salad

Every once in a while we had a totally stand out dish, and this is one of them.

It comes from the womens weekly Greek food recipe book. It is seriously good, so here is the recipe;

Grilled Lemon Chicken
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup lemon juice
1.5kg chicken thighs
2 tsp dried thyme
2 tsp course salt
1 tsp ground white pepper
1 lemon

Blend or process oil and juice until thich and creamy.

Combine chicken, thyme, salt, pepper and half the lemon mixture in a bowl

Cook skewers on a heated grill plate, brushing frequently with remaining lemon mixture, until cooked through.

Serve with lemon wedges and greek salad

Greek Salad
Cherry tomatoes
feta
red onion, sliced thinly
kalamata olives
Dressing, olie oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper

Combine dressing ingredients. Combine salad ingredients. Drizzle dressing over salad.

Done!

Day 202 - Stir fry

Tonight we had stirfry, it was tasty but had a bit too much ginger in it for me, the rest of it was tasty though!

Go here for the recipe

Day 201 - Morrys indian beef curry

Beef curry of Indian influence.

Another slow cooker recipe - into the slow cooker went two frozen chuck steaks, a tin of tomatoes, a cup of beef stock, some Tikka paste and some black mustard seeds. And hey presto, 8 hours later, a magnificent dinner!

Day 200 - Hot Smoked Salmon Salad

This pantry surprise dish was to use up leftovers in the fridge - lots of Hot Smoked Salmon left over from Hugos party, Beans and rocket.

The dressing was especially tasty

Here is the recipe

Day 199 - Light sabers & storm troopers

Hugos 6th birthday party was an after school thing with a star wars theme.

After the party we went to the Butchers winter dinner. Catherine made a fabulous dinner for about 13 people. The entree was a stand up thing with champagne and cocktails, it was a lovely assortment of cheeses, nuts and dried fruit. Dinner was roast beef and pork, little veggie pasties and steamed greans. Dessert was a choice of a chocolate mouse cake and rhubarb pie. After dinner, was scotch and cigars - I had the scotch, morry the cigars.

I cant tell you how many times I wanted to whip out my camera. It was a very impressive sight with so many guests. But I thought it was probably impolite....

Day 198 - Chicken and prawn Paella

I got this recipe from the Donna Hay web site. Paella is a bit of a heavy meal for us, but it was a great recipe  I love the smoked paprika.

Go here for the recipe