It's a hard life

Beautiful Bali.

Loving it 😄😄😄

Jetsetting

Out of office reply:
Thanks for stopping by but I'm not here at the moment. I've packed my bag and am about to board a jet plane.

Lucky Phil and I are off to beautiful Bali for a week, after having spent the weekend in Melbourne. I'm not far from turning my phone onto international roam which means ill turn my data access off too (at a million dollars er GB I think I'll pass!!) but thought one last post before I leave 😄

No cooking for me this week but my goal re my Cookbook Cookoff Challenge is to try some new meals instead of my usual nasi goreng ayam and gado gado! Expect a report when I get back...

See you all on the flip side!!!

Rainy day activities

So it's raining today. Has been for the last three days. At least we don't have the gale force winds of the other night. Truly, I thought we'd lose the tin on the roof that night, nailed on as it is.

Right now the rain is an intermittent sprinkle. Enough to make you think you should go out and do something productive but then rethink cos you'll get too wet.

I'm happy sitting on the front verandah, doing my cross-stitch and watching lucky Phil fertilize the hedge plants.

Grateful that I'm high and dry, I wish all the flood affected parts of Queensland a safe evening.

Agileh

Agileh = happy man

The road to a friend's house....

Our neighbour friends have moved out to their block of land an hour out of town and left us all alone.

Very sad we are because not only were they great neighbours, but they are great friends and truthfully, we don't have that many friends in this place.

We see them a couple of times a month now, when they drop around to their house to check that their son (who now lives there) hasn't burnt the place down and to mow the lawn.  Or when we get an afternoon free and we are able to take a drive out.

We do miss their company.  Genuine people with giving hearts.  Gems.  Rare to find these days.

I found this cross-stitch in one of my books and thought it would be a perfect gift for them....

 

It now has a new home on a wall in their house.

Fills my heart with joy that does. 

Wk 3: Cheesy Spring Onion Fritters and Lasagne

Week 3 already of my Cookbook Cookoff Challenge and I'm on fire!  Am totally enjoying the different meals I've already cooked from my cookbook collection and looking forward to the next.  Most new meals are happening on the weekend given that on a Saturday and Sunday I have not only the time, but also the inclination.

This week has seen the addition of another Donna Hay recipe - this one from her magazine - and a recipe-book version of Lasagne, rather than the made-up-on-the-go version that I usually go for!

Donna Hay's Cheesy Spring Onion Fritters were first up.  Nice and light and easy, I only needed to buy buttermilk - not something I usually cook with.  Everything else was already in the fridge.  I had to fudge a little since I don't like ricotta cheese (it's the smell....) so replaced it with cheddar.  Would no doubt have tasted much better with the ricotta but still tasted pretty damn fine without!

These little gems were incredibly light and fluffy, and very more-ish.  I served them with another summery-greekish salad (seems to be my signature these days!) and some homemade tomato relish.  I must say, I'm not sure if it was the Fritters or the tomato relish or a combination of them both, but this was just plain delicious!  Both Lucky Phil and I went back for seconds and  also polished off the few I had reserved for lunch the next day!!  I'll certainly now be rethinking the gifting of the final few bottles of tomato relish in the cupboard too....!

Second challenge of the week - good old Lasagne   I made this one on Sunday night in preparation for someone's 41st birthday on Tuesday (not mine).  The request for this special meal was submitted last week and of course, being a birthday night, how can one refuse!?!  So I figured, to fulfil the Cookbook Cookoff Challenge, why not make it from a recipe book?  

.

The front of my book has gone all crackly - not sure why but I think it looks pretty.  Unique, anyway.

I followed Stephanie Alexander's recipe from her tome The Cooks Companion.  I've often referred to this book when I have a glut of one form of veg or another and need some inspiration for the using up of it.  Stephanie's lasagne recipe didn't disappoint.  I made it on Sunday night for eating on Tuesday night to give the flavours time to develop and meld (the whole world knows that leftover lasagne tastes better than first night!).

I had to do a bit of fudging on this one too - I didn't have any celery, or bacon, or white wine and instead did without the former and substituted with red wine for the latter (always plenty of that on hand!!!).  I seem to do a lot of fudging with my cooking, which hopefully isn't going against the grain of my Cookbook Cookoff goal.....but I figure that I'm making 'new' recipes rather than playing with different versions of my usual repertoire of six or so meals, so I'm safe.

Anyway, birthday boy Lucky Phil was very impressed with the Lasagne.  But then he always is.  I figured out from a very early point in our relationship that he is happy with cheese on toast, anything more and he is ecstatic!  We demolished half of it last night - with a light salad on the side.  I was originally planning veggies but a) it was too hot   b) I didn't have time and c) I no longer had it in me to cook them by the time we were ready to eat.  Good thing the salad won out - there is no way I could have eaten my small share of the mammoth piece of lasagne I heated up had I done veggies!

Leftovers again tonight....looking forward to it.

The verdict on these two?
Will certainly make again.  There were other varieties of fritters to try - tuna and corn, sweet potato and pea, broccoli and bacon - will try to make sure I have all of the ingredients next time.  And as for the lasagne, Stephanie's recipe called for the addition of nutmeg to the mince mixture which I think made it sweeter.  Very nice indeed - and will be doing that one again too.

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Cheesy Spring Onion Fritters (Donna Hay Magazine, Issue 65, Oct-Nov 2012, p70)
Lasagne (Stephanie Alexander, The Cook's Companion, 2004, p691)

Wk 2: Mediterranean Open Grill and Bobotie Loaf

So here we go, full swing ahead, into week 2 of my 2013 Cookbook Cookoff Challenge where I attempt to cook two meals a week from cookbooks that have been gathering dust on my shelf despite the occasional pull-down-dust-off that comes from engaging in a little food-porn.

This week, only one meal from the cookbook (really?!? breaking the rules on week 2??!!) however the Mediterranean Open Grill was inspired by our visit to our friend's cafe so chances are pretty high it did come from a recipe book, at one time.....and who knows, I may find it in one of my books up there on the shelf...so it counts!!

Lucky Phil's Open Grill - lots of olives...both on the grill and on the salad....

I made this one on Sunday night after we had driven to Brisbane to visit Mr Matt and partake of his fine food and good coffee in the gorgeous surroundings that are his inner-north cafe-gift shop.  Lucky Phil and I had an open grill each for lunch (with Greek salad on the side) and could have eaten it all over again except that would have made us pigs.  So instead, I waited until we got home and I made my own version.  Basil pesto, spinach leaves, red onion, fetta, sundried tomatoes, cheese.  All on a turkish roll cut in half then topped with a mozzarella-ey cheese mix and toasted until just right.  Heaven on a bread roll.  Finished with a thrown together Greek-ish salad, I reckon my version was better than that of the cafe.  Yes, Mr Matt, that's right.  Better LOL

And mine....with a helping of avocado and delicious fetta....

The Bobotie Loaf however was a genuine, ridgey-dige recipe from The World of Spice by Michael Bateman.  I'm not sure how I came to have this book in my possession but it has the most amazing recipes (At this stage, to read.  Soon I can say, to eat) and pictures.  This one jumped out at me because I was craving meat but not enough to cook a steak.  It was super easy to make and the smells as it cooked were amazing.

It had a delicious sweet taste - I think from the apricot jam and raisins (I used sultanas - didn't have raisins).  It also had a touch of the familiar in the use of curry powder.  One of my big food memories as a child is dad's every-veggie-left-in-the-fridge-cooked-with-mince-flavoured-with-curry dish.  This one brought all those good memories right on back with every bite.  Feel good stuff that.

Like a lasagne though, first night everything fell apart when served up.  Second night though, perfecto.  Cut perfectly so it served so nicely, plus having had a day and night to mellow the flavours together, tasted even better than the first.  The recipe made lots too.  Almost too much for two people (eaten over three nights - nearly one night too many for any leftover no matter how tasty), it would certainly feed four or six adults in a hit.

The verdict?

Bobotie Loaf = very yum though maybe not to everyone's tastes.  Make the day before to let the flavours gel and the loaf to hold it's shape when cut.

Mediterranean Open Grill = great, quick, healthy meal for nights when I don't know what to cook and am feeling quite lazy. 

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Bobotie Loaf (Michael Bateman, The World of Spice, 2003, p93)

Hmmmmm, should I be posting the recipes as well?  Not too sure, given the copyright laws of the world.  I mean, I paid good money for these cook books so that the authors could be reimbursed for their knowledge and skill....I've read that by re-writing the recipe in my own words and attributing credit I shouldn't be breaking copyright law but I don't know....

One thing I do know is that I will be seriously peeved if ever the cookbook goes a-missing and here I've gone and posted about how great the recipe was and I won't be able to make it again.....thoughts????