what we ate

roasted peppers stuffed with
couscous and kidney beans and feta and
pumpkin and parsley
(and a squeeze of lemon juice)

CNN's veggie chilli
it's based on jamie oliver's
ministry of food recipe
and is it so very, very good

Like all households with more than one cook, we each have our signature dishes.  CNN was the fajita-maker until he had to pick up his nephew from the other side of Sydney and I was responsible for cooking for man and boy.  It's silly because fajitas aren't hard to make but I felt a little nervous about making something in CNN's repertoire.  Quite often, the division of recipes is down to ethnicity - we have a go-to girl for steamed rice and a master of mashed potato.

I was late home the night CNN made this so he went solo with the rice.  He is very proud of those fluffy grains.  I'm proud because he made extra to take to friends up the road.  Their two year old is in a full body cast after falling 40cm off baby monkey bars and there's a five year old and gastro in the mix there as well. Eeep.

i attempted a homemade version
of dan dan mien
they were tasty
but not spicy enough

Easy peasy recipe: stir fry chopped one and a half chillis and one fat clove of garlic.  Add half a tin of coconut milk and three tablespoons of smooth peanut butter.  When the peanut butter is combined, add one tablespoon light soy, one tablespoon dark soy, two tablespoons sweet chilli sauce and a teaspoon of chilli powder (although I would urge caution as my experience with chilli powders is that they vary a lot in strength).  Thin with water and toss through cooked noodles.  Serve. (do you like my Gordon Ramseyesque single syllable sentence?)

i steamed bok choy
on top of the noodles
(the steamer was
a wedding present)

what we ate

After last week's debacle involving two food posts in a row, I decided to institute a weekly kitchen round-up.  The only problem is, giving myself permission to take pictures of my dinner has unleashed the food-photo-taking-mad-lady within.  See for yourself...

lemon slice
not exactly what i had planned to make
but delicious anyway
recipe here

the biggest happy hour margaritas ever
(i am addicted after the island bar experience)
they looked much bigger
in real life?

homemade breakfast burrito
scrambled egg, cherry tomatoes
avocado, red onion, leftover bean stew
cnn had coriander, i had leftover tabbouleh

Bean stew - onion, garlic, tin of tomatoes, carrot, potato, balsamic vinegar, sweetcorn, green pepper, leftovers from a tin of beetroot, tin of mixed beans, basil, parsley, black pepper.  It was so good, I didn't even add salt or bouillon powder.  I put the leftovers in the burrito as I thought it would be a good stand-in for refried beans.

garlic-roasted mushroom and feta quiche
it was better with the addition of spinach
i did that the first time i made this
but burnt the top so it was not photo-worthy

This quiche has the best pastry ever.  A word of warning though, this recipe is quite time-consuming.  You don't have to spend hours at the stove or anything, but you are meant to make the pastry, roll it out, rest it, roll it out, rest it and then roll it out a third time before baking.  I attempted to make this recipe slightly healthier by using wholewheat flour and going for half cream, half milk in the filling.

If you are making this quiche, might I suggest garlic-roasted mushrooms?  Chopped garlic, mushrooms and a drizzle of olive oil - roast while you're blind baking the pastry.  Absolutely scrummy.

it was pancake day yesterday
i meant to remind you
but i forgot
(it was also international women's day - oops)

We hardly ever eat crepes - breakfast pancakes in our household tend to be the thick American style hotcakes.  Even though I have known about Pancake Day since my early teens, I never properly celebrated until I lived with my friend Catriona whom I met during teacher training.  It's become a much loved adopted tradition which never fails to remind me of a fantastic friend

Here is my Pancake Day history:

• 2007 - Cat makes pancakes for the house, we gorge ourselves on pancakes with lemon and sugar
• 2008 - Cat gives me her pancake making secrets, more restrained consumption this year
• 2009 - I am now living with CNN but I do ring Cat up to get the recipe.  I cook savory pancakes filled with broccoli in a cheese sauce and sweet pancakes for CNN and my sister who is having dinner with us between travelling to med school interviews
• 2010 - for some reason, CNN cannot make it home for dinner this year.  My friend Isi comes over and we make a meal similar to that in 2009.  I forget that a very hot pan is needed to succeed but Isi saves the day

 And the recipe?  (I hope you have a good English Imperial measure on your scale, because this one's in ounces):

 - 4 oz flour (half white, half wholewheat if you're making savory pancakes)
- 2 eggs
- 7 oz milk and 3 oz water
- 1 tablespoon melted butter

Cat's pancake secrets are: you need a hot pan, the first one is always a failure so don't worry, swirl the batter after you've ladled it in in order to get the thinnest pancake possible, break any air bubbles with a spatula, loosen the edges of the pancake and slide it over onto the rim of the pan before flipping.  I personally  lack the courage and coordination to flip them in the air - can you do it?  And if yes, please do share tips!

cnn's lunch for today
i was just very proud of it
when i made it last night

it's grey today so
even though
it's hot and humid
i decided it was soup weather

Lentil soup - garlic, onion, carrot, (white wine only because there was a splash of that New Year's champagne left), red lentils, celery, bay leaf, thyme, basil, parsley, bouillon, black pepper.

I'm not sure how interesting this is to you (especially since my photography skills are rubbish) but I hope that you liked it and maybe even feel a little inspired to cook something new.

what we ate (non-food post next, i promise)

sorry all my food pictures
are of half-eaten food
i only think of sharing the momen
when my belly is happy and full

I have been reading all about kabocha at Happy Little Bento.  If I hadn't, I probably wouldn't have bought the Japanese pumpkin I saw in the greengrocers the other day.  It's beautiful - very sweet, tender and moist.  Last night, I cooked some up in the yummiest rissotto.

Ingredients

- kabocha (or any pumpkin)
- onion

- celery (optional)

- garlic
- olive oil
- arborio rice (or another risotto rice)

- white wine
- stock
- thyme

- basil

Instructions

- Peel and deseed your pumpkin.  Cut into bite-sized chunks.  Roast at 200 degrees C until done.  (I didn't have to do this step because I deliberately roasted extra pumpkin when I made a salad the other night.  The excess went into a box in the fridge ready to be made into something else - the easiest way to save time and energy!)

- Chop onions and garlic.  Fry in olive oil on a medium heat - the idea is to let both soften without colouring (not that I achieve this very often, my onions were pretty brown by the time I'd chopped the garlic and chucked it in!).

- Add one and a half metric cupfuls of rice (this should be enough for three people) and stir to coat the grains in the oil, onions and garlic.

- Add one cup of white wine or white vermouth.  (we used a sparkling white leftover from New Year's - why we didn't finish the bottle that night or soon thereafter, I'll never know - it was still perfectly good for cooking though)

- Stir until the rice has absorbed all the wine.

- This is where most recipes ask you to add small amounts of hot stock, stirring until absorbed and then repeating until the rice is al dente.  I cheat by using cold water and then adding powdered veggie boullion at the end - I just find it is easier to adjust the flavour that way.  I also added one teaspoon of dried thyme at this stage.

- Stir in your pumpkin.  This is where kabocha is amazing - it's so tender that some of it breaks down and melds with the risotto goo in a glorious orange ooze.

- Serve with chopped fresh basil.  I got mine from here:

meet the ladies
l-r: cherry, basil, corrie, little p and minty
(there are no good girly nicknames for parsley
sorry about the light it has been grey here today

We picked them up on the weekend (CNN and I are masters of lady-picking-up, don't you know) and I'm so happy to have them here.  Plants really make a house a home, even if they do attract flies (what can I say?  They're ladies who pick up!).  At least now I have a good reason to get a venus flytrap.

take four ingredients

 

This is my wee contribution to all those posts I'm seeing featuring tasty things: last night's dinner.  It's one of the easiest and tastiest meals I know and it's pretty healthy too!

Ingredients:

• sweet potatoes
• feta
• chilli
• lime

Instructions:

1. Put the sweet potatoes in the oven at 200 Celsius/centigrade
2. Chop chillies
3. Crumble feta into a bowl
4. Add chillies
5. Squeeze in lime juice (I only used half)
6. Stir and leave so the flavours can make friends
7. Serve when sweet potatoes are ready (this is the only downside to the recipe, sweet potatoes take f-o-r-e-v-e-r to bake)

i thought it was funny
how i've been quite anal
and sliced my sweet potato into quarters
whilst CNN's is just a mess

It might look spicy, but it's not.  The creaminess of the cheese really melds with the chilli to take the heat off, not to mention the sweet potato underneath.

This recipe was given to me by Helen.  We taught English together in London.  Helen is a knitter, a former ballet dancer, a mother and grandmother and all-round incredible woman.  We didn't keep in touch after I left teaching but I do miss her.

I love the stories that food can tell.