Dinner Party Vegetarian Meals

JC asked me for some vegetarian recipe's to impress.

The first two recipes are two glutten free recipes and the last contains gluten:

1. Eggplant, spinach and pumpkin Stacks

1 Large eggplant(500g)
200g pumpkin, sliced thinly
700g of bottled tomato pasta sauce
80g baby spinach leaves
4 green onions sliced thinly longways
1 cup coarsely grated mozzarella cheese
1/4 cup pine nuts

1. Discard top and bottom of eggplant, cut eggplant length ways into ten 5 mm slices. Discard rounded skin side slices, place remaining eight slices in colander, sprinkle all over with salt, stand 10 minutes.
2. Rinse eggplant well under cold water, pat dry with absorbent paper. Cook eggplant and pumpkin, in batches, on heated oiled grill plate (or grill or BBQ) until tender.
3. Place sauce in medium saucepan and bring to boil. Reduce heat, simmer uncovered, 2 minutes 4. Place four slices of the eggplant, in a single layer, on oven tray: top with half of the spinach, half of the pumpkin and half of the onion. Spoon 2 tablespoons of the sauce over each then repeat the layering process, using remaining spinach, pumpkin and onion and another 2 tablespoons of the sauce for each stack. Top stacks with remaining eggplant slices, pour over remaining sauce, sprinkle stacks with cheese and nuts. Place under hot grill until cheese browns slightly.

This was really delicious and only lasted a few minutes on the plates. Unfortunately the 35 minutes the recipe claims to take to get it to the table, took me 1 hour and 10 minutes. I used two small eggplants, I did not have pumpkin and used slices of potato. I did not have spring onions so used finely chopped onions. I only used a 500g jar of tomato sauce. However my dish looked very much like the one above.

2. A Terrine with Four Cheeses
I made this for Christmas one year when we had all my family here in Monash, a great special Christmas dish for vegetarians.

275 g Cottage Cheese
75 ml Mayonnaise
11g sachet powdered gelatin
50 g garlic and chives cheddar
50 g blue brie
50 g Cheshire
1 dessertspoon of snipped chives
2 tablespoons cold water
2 teaspoons lemon juice
150 ml double cream
fresh milled black pepper to taste

Place the gelatin in a teacup with the cold water and the lemon juice and let it soak for about five minutes. Then place the cup in saucepan containing 5 cm barely simmering water, leave the gelatin to dissolve and become transparent.
Chop the three hard cheeses into 5 mm pieces, and combine. Blend the cottage cheese and mayonnaise until absolutely smooth. Whip the cream to a soft floppy stage.
Mix the gelatin and cottage cheese/mayonnaise mixture, stir to ensure the gelatin is evenly spread. Mix in the hard cheeses.
Finally fold in the cream and pour the whole mixture into the terrine. Cover with glad wrap and chill for several hours until firmly set.
Invert onto a plate and slice. Serve with a green salad.

3. Pumpkin Tartlets

300g golden nugget (small pumpkin), peeled, seeded and thinly sliced.
2 sheets reduced fat frozen puff pastry
2 tspns oregano
2 cloves garlic coarsely chopped
2 tblspns coarsely chopped hazelnuts
1 tblspn finely grated lemon rind
2 tblspn finely grated orange rind
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
200g boccochini pulled apart
2 tspns rocksalt

Cut each sheet of puff pastry into six and rest.

Mix the garlic, rinds, half the oregano and salt in a mortar and pestle and make a paste, add the olive oil and mix well. Add pepper to taste.
Take the finely sliced pumpkin and toss in a bowl with a little of the oil. Brush the pastry with the paste and place the pumpkin on top, sprinkle with hazelnuts.

Cook at 200C for 15 minutes or until the pumpkin is cooked, then sprinkle with the boccochini and serve with a green salad.

Tomato Pasta

We have a new Bill Granger book and we love his food, it is always simple and tasty. The other day JSR made this tomato pasta and we loved it. If you are interested in some of his other tomato recipes check out BillGranger.

1kg vine ripened tomatoes
1 tblspn sea salt
1.2 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 tblspns balsamic vinegar
juice and zest of 1 lemon
2 cloves garlic crushed
1 small red chilli, finely chopped
fresh black pepper
300g spaghetti
1 cup lightly packed basil leaves, torn

Score a cross in the the base of each tomato. Place tomatoes in a large bowl and pour boiling water over them. Drain after 10 seconds, then peel the skin away from the cross. Halve the tomatoes and press halves to squeeze out seeds and excess juice. Chop tomato flesh roughly, place in a sieve over a bowl and sprinkle with the sea salt. Leave to drain for half an hour.
Place drained tomatoes, olive oil, vinegar, lemon juice and zest, garlic chilli and pepper in a bowl and stir. Leave for 20 minutes for the flavours to combine.
Cook the spaghetti in rapidly boiling salted water according to the manufacturer's instructions. Drain well. Toss through tomatoes with freshly torn basil leaves and serve with freshly shaved Parmesan cheese.
Serves 4.

Carrot and coriander soup

Carrot and Coriander Soup

1 kg of Carrots, roughly chopped
1 large onion sliced
1 large potato thickly sliced
2 cloves of garlic chopped roughly
1.2 Litres stock (Massel GF vegetable stock)
2 bunches of coriander, chopped

Place the onion and the garlic in the soup pot and sweat for five minutes. Add the stock, carrots and potato and cook for 25 minutes or until the root vegetables are soft. Add one bunch of coriander at the end. Blend in batches in the food processor or use a stab blender to make the soup smooth, you may need to add a little water if the soup is too thick. Reheat and serve with fresh coriander sprinkled on the top.

Serves 4-6

On Monday, CJK and the kids came over and I made a bit of a gluten free festival (see photo) I hope you enjoy this dish as much as we did,

Terrine with Four Cheeses

Great for Christmas or dinner party

275 g Cottage Cheese
75 ml Mayonnaise
3 tspn powdered gelatine
50 g garlic & chives cheddar
50 g blue Brie
50 g Cheshire
1 dstpn of snipped chives
2 tblspn cold water
2 tspn lemon juice
150 ml double cream
Fresh milled black pepper to taste


Place the gelatine in a teacup with the cold water and the lemon juice and let it soak for about five minutes. Then place the cup in saucepan containing 5 cm barely simmering water, leave the gelatine to dissolve and become transparent.
Chop the three cheeses into 5 mm pieces, and combine. Blend the cottage cheese and mayonnaise until absolutely smooth. Whip the cream to a soft floppy stage.
Mix the gelatine and cottage cheese/mayonnaise mixture; stir to ensure the gelatine is evenly distributed. Mix in the cheeses.
Finally fold in the cream and pour the whole mixture into the terrine. Cover with glad wrap and chill for several hours until firmly set.
Invert onto a plate and slice.
Serve with a green salad.

Serves 4-6.

Thai Amarin

There are two Thai Amarin restaurants in Canberra, one in Kingston and run by the original owners of the Thai Amarin in Erindale. John and Silvie left Erindale 10 years ago to set up the Kingston restaurant. We have been regular visitors to the Erindale Thai Amarin, since we moved into Monash. We went there this week on a day when I ran out of energy. Our current favourite is something called Takay which is spicy and nice, we love the curries and they have a variety of vegetarian dishes which keep AJR interested. They also have a little boy, who MLR loves to play with.

Buy local road trip

Well some time ago I suggested that we should try a buy local trip and yesterday TSS, JC and I managed it. We went to the Poachers Pantry on the Yass side of Hall, here I collected information for a colleague at work who is thinking of getting married there. I must say that it would be a great venue to get married at - out in the bush and lovely scenery. Then to Gundaroo for a look see, were there was little in the way of local produce. Finally we went to Collector where we stopped off at the Lynwood Cafe and then on to the art gallery/bookshop. See The Shopping Sherpa for a complete record of our trip. Unfortunately we did not do well in the "finding local produce" stakes and we found only olive oil that was both grown and bottled in the district. I bought a book on DH Lawrence about his time in Thirroul where he wrote Kangaroo. I also bought a beautiful bead necklace as a present for Bron (who's birthday party we attended later last night), and a fridge magnet in the shape of Australia in wood, which I sent to Sally this morning. It was great and we have all agreed to do it again, as well as organising a trip to Ikea.
I did take photo's of this trip on my mobile phone, and when I work out how to download them I will post them here.

Tuesday at the Italian

Tuesday I was tired and had gone to Woolies to pick up something for dinner and baulked when I saw how long the queues were. Went to the petrol station and managed to pull into the wrong side of the bowser!!! Saw this as a sign that it was time to go home and stop.

We decided that we would eat out!!! So we went to the new Italian restaurant in Erindale - Italian Grill. JSR had a steak and I had chicken masarla, the kids had a pizza and chicken bites. The service was fine and the location is good as it is part of the restaurant strip. Our meals were fine, however the pizza was definitely ordinary and the chicken bites was dry and overcooked. JSR went off to get a bottle of wine and came back with The footbolt shiraz from Mclaren Vale. It was an excellent drop and I would recommend it as a great wine for the price (just under $20).
Collected the ironing from Dale and headed home to fall asleep in front of the Bill.

Chestnut Soup

Monday saw us eating Chestnut soup with the Bundanoon chestnuts.

Recipe from: http://www.chestnutsonline.com/recipes.htm

GLUTEN FREE 3 tbsp. butter 1 stalk celery 1 medium carrot 1 medium onion 1/4 C parsley, chopped 1/4 tsp ground cloves 1 bay leaf (to be removed later) 6 C chicken broth 12 oz. cooked, peeled chestnuts (1 lb fresh in the shell) 1/4 C heavy cream 1/4 tsp pepper Salt to taste Of course I changed something!!! I used vegetable stock rather than chicken stock and I did not have a bay leaf, also used too many cloves. Apart from the preparation work to get the chestnuts roasted, it was an easy recipe.

Cut the celery, carrot and onion into small pieces and process in a food processor. Melt the butter in a 3 qt. saucepan. Add the celery, carrot and onion. Sauté about 10 minutes. Add the chestnuts, broth, parsley, cloves and bay leaf to the veggies. Bring to a boil; then simmer for 30-45 minutes covered. Puree the soup in small quantities in a blender and put into another pan. Stir in the cream, salt and pepper and reheat over medium heat until warm. You may want to garnish with a bit of parsley.

Chestnuts

Dad brought some chestnuts from Bundanoon the other day, still in their protective cases. AJR and Mum and Dad removed the chestnuts from the cases yesterday and today we will be making roast chestnuts.




Facts about Chestnuts:

• Instructions on preparing and cooking chestnuts.
• May is chestnut month, and this link gives a list of restaurants that have signed up to promote chestnuts in May.
• Chestnuts Online have an extensive range of gluten free recipes as well as other information.
  

Omelet with a twist

We have an omelet maker and the other day I made delicious omelette's for everyone.



5 eggs
left over sweet potato fritatta mix
bag of spinach and rocket
Camembert cheese chopped or pulled into pieces (a little or a lot depending on your taste, could also use blue cheese)

Mix everything up and pour into the preheated Omelet maker and cook until set.

Chocolate

As Easter approaches I thought we should spend some time thinking (in addition to eating) chocolate - well who doesn't.

Origin of the word:

Chocolate When the Spanish arrived in Mexico they came across the Aztecs. The Aztec language is called Nahuatl. The Aztecs had a drink which they made from a bean they called CHOCO (bitter). They would put this bean into water (ATL) to produce CHOCO-ATL (bitter water).

The TL sound is common in the Aztec language but not in Spanish. The Spaniards mispronounced the drink CHOCOLATO.

This drink was brought to Europe (with sugar added) where the pronunciation and spelling in English became CHOCOLATE.

From: http://www.krysstal.com/wordname.html

History of Chocolate.

Interesting information about Chocolate:

The Quakers were, and still are, a pacifist religious sect, an offshoot of the Puritans of English Civil War and Pilgrim Fathers fame and a history of chocolate would not be complete without mentioning their part in it. Some of the most famous names in chocolate were Quakers, who for centuries held a virtual monopoly of chocolate making in the English speaking world - Fry, Cadbury and Rowntree are probably the best known.

It's probably before the time of the English civil war between Parliament and King Charles 1st, that the Quaker's, who evolved from the Puritans, first began their historic association with Chocolate. Because of their pacifist religion, they were prohibited from many normal business activities, so as an industrious people with a strong belief in the work ethic (like the puritans), they involved themselves in food related businesses and did very well. Baking was a common occupation for them because bread was regarded as the biblical " Staff Of Life", and Bakers in England were the first to add chocolate to cakes so it would be a natural progression for them to start making pure chocolate. They were also heavily involved in breakfast cereals but that's another story.

What is certain is that the Fry, Rowntree and Cadbury families in England among others, began chocolate making and in fact Joseph Fry of Fry & Sons (founded 1728 in Bristol, England) is credited with producing and selling the worlds first chocolate bar. Fry's have now all but disappeared (taken over by Cadbury) and Rowntree have merged Swiss company Nestle, to form the largest chocolate manufacturer in the world. Cadbury have stayed with chocolate production and are now, if not quite the largest, probably one of the best known Chocolate makers in the world.

From their earliest beginnings in business the Quakers were noted for their enlightened treatment of their employees, providing not just employment but everything needed for workers to better themselves such as good housing etc. In fact, Cadbury built a large town for their employees around their factory near Birmingham, England. Complete with libraries, schools, shops and Churches etc, they called it Bourneville. So next time you see Cadbury's chocolate with the name Bournville on it you will know where it comes from and what the name relates to.

From: http://www.aphrodite-chocolates.co.uk/history_chocolate.htm

Origin of the use of chocolate at Easter Time:

Easter Eggs

As well as adopting the festival of Eostre, the Egg, representing fertility and re-birth in pagan times, was also adopted as part of the Christian Easter festival and it came to represent the 'resurrection' or re-birth of Christ after the crucifixion and some believe it is a symbol of the the stone blocking the Sepulchre being 'rolled' away.

In the UK and Europe, the earliest Easter eggs were painted and decorated hen, duck or goose eggs, a practice still carried on in parts of the world today. As time went by, artificial eggs were made and by the end of the 17th century, manufactured eggs were available for purchase at Easter, for giving as Easter gifts and presents.

Easter eggs continued to evolve through the 18th and into the 19th Century, with hollow cardboard Easter eggs filled with Easter gifts and sumptuously decorated, culminating with the fabulous Faberge Eggs. Encrusted with jewels, they were made for the Czar's of Russia by Carl Faberge, a French jeweller. Surely these were the 'ultimate' Easter gift, to buy even a small one now would make you poorer by several millions of pounds.

The Chocolate Easter Egg

It was at about this time (early 1800's) that the first chocolate Easter egg appeared in Germany and France and soon spread to the rest of Europe and beyond. The first chocolate eggs were solid soon followed by hollow eggs. Although making hollow eggs at that time was no mean feat, because the easily worked chocolate we use today didn't exist then, they had to use a paste made from ground roasted Cacao beans.

By the turn of the 19th Century, the discovery of the modern chocolate making process and improved mass manufacturing methods meant that the Chocolate Easter Egg was fast becoming the Easter Gift of choice in the UK and parts of Europe, and by the 1960's it was well established worldwide.

From: http://www.aphrodite-chocolates.co.uk/easter-eggs-history.htm

Aioli

I like to try new things and have recently found Neil Perry's aioli. Aioli is mayonaise with roasted garlic.

Recipe:
Tomatoes, baby spinach and red onion salad, with battered prawns topped with Neil Perry's aioli.

YUM

We use the aioli on seafood, wedges, salad, in fact on almost anything. Neil Perry has a range of products that you can buy from Woolworths, we have tried his marinades as well. Try them, they really are yummy.

Cinamon Toast and Hot Chocolate

AJR has discovered the delights of Cinamon toast and hot chocolate with cinamon in it and here is his favourite afternoon snack.

Pasta Pantry Cooking

Ingredients

1pkt pasta
sliced olives to taste (I use Woolworth's home brand)
sliced sundried tomatoes to taste (I like and use Always Fresh, Sundried tomato strips)
1 tuna steak
rocket or rocket and spinach mix

Cook pasta until al dente or as liked,
mix in all the other ingredients, making sure you flake the tuna
add Parmesan cheese (I did not)
Serve

Gourmet Gluten Free fair

MLR and I attended the fair, but were a bit late due to other things that happened today. I had to work this morning and then was late back as the work still wasn't finished. Then MLR went missing and JSR was even more late for his golf. AJR was at his friend Liam's through all this. We found MLR and JSR got off to golf and then I had a snooze on the couch!!!! Suddenly it was heading for 3.30 and the fair finished at 4pm. So off we went, saw Robert De Castella on his stand, and tried some interesting "bread", then bought some gluten free, dairy free biscuits, grabbed some brochures and fled to the shopping centre for a dose of retail therapy in Woollies.

Cheap wine and a three day....

Following the popular $12 cases of wine found (and bought and consumed) in Woollies in past few weeks, I heard a rumour that ALDI were following suit, so after work dropped in to my local to find out if there were any left. Now it is important to know that the wine went on sale on Thursday morning and it is now Friday evening just before 6pm. Well I could see the pallett's were they had been, and two boxes of sweet white wine looking at me with those take me home eyes that wine cartons have, but which I was successfully able to resist. So keep your eyes out and let me know if this sale happens again and I will try on the day the wine is available. Hope those who shopped Thursday morning for their wine were more successful than moi.

Cheers,
A

Gluten Free Gourmet Food Fair

For those in the Canberra region and interested in this topic, then this is the fair to attend. It is on at the Canberra Southern Cross Club in Woden on Saturday the 10th of March.

I intend to be there and check things out. If you are interested in exhibiting at or sponsoring the event please contact foodfair@cyberone.com.au or phone 02 6286 9577.

I will report back here about what I learn (and what show bags I get my mits on).

Aunty A

Smoked Salmon Pasta last week

Easy to make Smoked Salmon Penne pasta
(serves however many you want!)

Per person:

60g dried penne (or other) pasta
50 g smoked salmon
1/4 capsicum (yellow or red)
1/4 head brocolli
1 wedge Blue Castello blue brie

1. Cook pasta, according to packet directions, until al dente.

2. Meanwhile, slice capsicum lengthwise and then across
into matchstick shaped pieces. Chop brocolli into small pieces. Place both
is a microwave-safe dish, add approx 1 Tbpsn water per serve, cover loosley
with gladwrap and microwave on high until cooked but crunchy (approx 1.5
minutes per serve)

3. While all this is happening, chop the smoked salmon into smallish
pieces.

4. Once the capsicum and brocolli are cooked drain and add
smoked salmon and lashings of freshly ground black pepper.

5. Once the pasta is cooked drain and return to the pot.

6. Add the capsicum, brocolli and smoked salmon mix to the
pasta. Cut the blue cheese into wedges and stir through. Cover with lid
if necessary to enhance the cheese melting.




7. Serve!
With thanks to TSS

Taste

Hi Everyone,

I found this site thanks to Bells, and TSS. It is a magazine, recipe finder, forum and teacher all in one. I do hope you enjoy it. Currently it has a number of recipe's for Haloumi, so expect some new versions of this delicious dish on these pages soon.

Cheers
Aunty A

Oysters

JSR introduced me to Oysters 16 years ago and I really like them, although I still prefer them dressed, rather than natural.

Here is his latest version.

1 doz Sydney Rock Oysters (or Bateman's Bay Oysters even better)
1 onion diced
Prosciutto, chopped roughly
left over Thai dipping sauce

Fry the onion and prosciutto until meat is crispy
pour a little dipping sauce in each shell and top with the onion and prosciutto
grill until the oysters are warmed through
serve immediately.

Serves 4
If you are interested in the dipping sauce let me know and I will send it to you.

Pasta

Ok, you are tired and need to eat before going to bed, going partying, going mad! Here is a simple recipe, with ingredients in your pantry, ready in around 15 minutes on the table.

500gm spaghettini (or your favourite short pasta)
1 jar Barilla Pesto
baby spinach leaves
sun dried tomato strips

Cook the pasta until al dente, stir in jar of pesto, baby spinach leaves, sun dried tomato strips and serve.
Serves 6 hungry people or plenty of left overs for lunch tomorrow.

Cooks note:

• If you click on the pesto link you will also find other recipes using pesto of various types.
• Alternative additions include; slivered almonds, rocket, parmesan cheese, chopped fresh tomatoes, parsley, basil or corriander.
  

Deeks

The 642.4 gang planned to descend on Deeks Bakery in Dickson, as it has been a while. If you want to know more about them , check out the website above. Deeks was created by Robert De Castella (the runner) and Bill Giles (a leader in bioenergetic medicine). They have two outlets in Canberra, the other is in Pearce. The Bakeries have a completely gluten free range of food.

Unfortunately when I got to TSS's t early o talk about Photo Shop, I found that two of our members could not turn up. We decided to go somewhere other than Deeks and save this up for a later date.

We ended up at Tilley's in Lyneham. Named after the Sydney bordello owner, Tilley Devine, the bar/cafe/restaurant serves breakfast lunch and dinner most days and has a good selection of often avant guard performers in the evenings. We managed to get a booth and could then watch people going by. It is very busy on a Sunday morning, but the service was efficient. TSS had the vegetarian plate with the lot and I had eggs hollondaise with bacon.

Celebration - Red Onion Tarts

Liz came over on Tuesday and I cooked her lunch - we were celebrating Liz's birthday and also the last day of my holiday.

I made individual red onion tarts, an adaptation from a family circle recipe and very nice it was too!!

1 sheet ready made short crust pastry
3 small red onions diced
70gms of crumbled feta
2 eggs
1/2 cup of cream

Fry onions gently, in a little oil until caramelised, approximately half an hour
Whisk the cream and eggs together
Cut pastry into twelve cases, to fit large muffin pan
Place in muffin pan and divide the onions between the cases
Sprinkle feta into each case and then pour the egg and cream mixture over the top of that
Cook in a moderate oven 180, for 20-30 minutes or until the custard has set

Serve with a green salad.

This is what was left for afternoon tea!

Bread and Butter Pudding

An ancestor of mine thinks that I cook a great bread and butter pudding, however I once made a terrible one and have avoided making this recipe for many years. I saw this recipe demonstrated the other day and just decided I had to try it. This is based on a recipe from ready steady cook.

3 large fruit muffins (preferably a day old)
1 punnet of raspberries (or frozen raspberries)
1 punnet of blueberries
5 egg yolks
1 cup milk
1 cup cream
1/4 cup caster sugar

break up the muffins roughly and scatter over a 2 litre oven proof dish, sprinkle fruit over the top.
Heat the milk and cream gently, stiring for about five minutes
Beat the egg yolks and the sugar together
Whisk the milk and egg mixture together, and then pour over the muffins.

Cook in a moderate oven, 180 for 20-30 minutes or until the egg custard has set.
Serve warm with a dusting of icing sugar, or cold.

Cooks note:
The taste is amazing when the blueberries burst in your mouth.

Ready Steady Cook

Warm salad of chorizo, spinach, tomato and onion

Having come home early I watched Ready Steady Cook show and then cooked the recipe above. Please note that the recipe is only for one.

It was delicious, sorry no photo's.

Tuna and pasta

We had a great standby meal tonight - ready in less than 15 minutes

1 can tuna (in spring water)
1 pkt pasta (any short pasta)

500 gm pkt frozen beans (could be peas or peas and corn)

1 large can of corn
Sundried tomato strips to taste

Cook pasta until nearly done, according to the packet and add the beans, cook for a further 3 minutes.
Drain and add other ingredients, stir and serve warm.


Optional extra's

• slivered almonds
• capers
• lemon juice and/or rind
• steamed mushrooms

Feeds 6-8 hungry people

Haloumi

I love haloumi and here is our haloumi Salad Rocket, sundried tomato strips, red onion and haloumi. The haloumi was dry fried on a grill pan.

Lunch on Thursday

TSS and CJK came over for lunch on Thursday.
I made a vegetarian, gluten free spag bol

1 can lentils drained
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 large onions diced
3 large cloves garlic (add more if liked)
1 red capsicum diced
2 small containers of tomato paste
1 large jar spaghetti sauce (I used Ragoletto's red wine and onion)
paprika
basil
600 gms mushrooms
2 cans chopped tomato's
jar of sliced kalimata olives
splash red wine

Heat olive oil and fry onions until clear. Add garlic and capsicum and stir fry for one minute
Add lentils, cans of tomatoes, tomato paste, spaghetti sauce, paprika and basil, salt and pepper to taste (I did not use any).
Heat to simmer and let cook for 30 minutes
Add a splash of red wine, olives and mushrooms and simmer gently for another 40 minutes.
Best prepared in advance to allow the flavours to develop.
Add a packet of rice noodles or any other sort of gluten free spaghetti and serve.


On Friday I added about 1.2k of mince, two more onions and more garlic and served up for lunch for Lauren and MLR, then tea for JSR, MLR and me.

With the left overs (yes there are still leftovers) I am going to make a small lasagne for MLR.

Pasta Zoo Happy Meal

I noticed last November that there was a new dish for Children at McDonalds, Pasta Zoo Happy Meal!!! A vegetarian, healthier option, yeh. I asked for one, and was told that they would be available in January! Not sure why it is on the menu in November!!!! We have now tried the dish twice and the kids like it.

I wanted to check the ingredients yesterday, as I was concerned about a child who seemed to react to the new dish (not my kids), I checked the McDonald's website and they have lots of information about their food and where it comes from and how it is prepared, but not about the Pasta Zoo Meal. So I rang them and they sent me the information. I am sure it will be on their website soon.

Here are the ingredients and main alergens found in the new Pasta dish being presented for children at McDonalds.

PASTA ZOO HAPPY MEAL

INGREDIENT INFORMATION
Reduced Fat Milk & Sipahh Straw - Chocolate MILK: Reduced Fat Milk CHOCOLATE SIPPAH STRAW: Sugar, Tapioca Starch, Cocoa, Maltodextrin (from Corn), Flavour, Sweetener (955), Vegetable Gum (414), Vanillin
Contains milk Reduced Fat Milk & Sipahh Straw - Strawberry MILK: Reduced Fat Milk STRAWBERRY SIPPAH STRAW: Sugar, Tapioca Starch, Maltodextrin (from Corn), Flavour, Vegetable Gum (414), Vanillin, Sweetener (955), Colour (162) Contains milk.

Zoo Goo Tomato [Tomato, Salt, Acidity Regulator (330), Calcium Chloride (509)], Fructose, Thickener (1422), Salt, Vegetable Powders, Vegetable Oil (Sunflower), Acidity Regulators (330, 270), Yeast Extract, Animal Fat, Colours (160c, 100), Preservative (202), Vegetable Gum (415), Herbs, Spice, Antioxidant (320).
Contains traces of sulphites in the thickener (<10ppm)

Pasta Zoo Cooked Pasta (Water, Durum Wheat Semolina, Eggs), Cheese [Ricotta (Whey, Milk, Salt, Acidity Regulator (260), Tasty (Milk, Cultures, Rennet, Salt, Anti-caking Agent (Tapioca Starch, (450)), Preservative (200)) , Parmesan ( Milk, Tapioca Starch, Cultures, Rennet, Salt)], Roasted Vegetables (Carrots, Onions, Celery), Sunflower Oil, Water, Tomato Paste, Sun-dried Tomatoes (Contains Preservatives (220, 202)), Potato Flakes (Contains Preservatives (220, 223), Emulsifier (471), Mineral Salt (450), Acidity Regulator (330)), Sweet Corn, Breadcrumbs (Wheat Flour, Yeast, Emulsifier (472e), Flour Treatment Agent (300)), Peas, Natural Flavour (Contains Milk), Salt, Thickener (461),
Garlic, Paprika Oleoresin (Colour), Herbs And Spices.

Contains gluten, milk, egg
Contains traces of sulphites (<10ppm)

Less healthy but yummy

Here is what we had for breakfast the other day - don't you just love pancakes in the holidays!!! JSR had his with jam, AJR had his with butter, maple syrup and icing sugar.

Sunday Breakfast for One

Here is a great breakfast idea, it is vegetarian, low gi and healthy.

1. Cut up some mushrooms and red onion and a little garlic and saute them in the microwave (no fat)
2. Toast a slice of whole grain bread (no fat)
3. Poach an egg

Pile everything onto the toast and then sprinkle with chopped parsley or corriander

Peacherine Crumble

Tonight we had homemade pizza and tried out the new Pizza stone - it works very well, thanks for the great present. We had a beautiful garlic and oil pizza, as well as a half salami, baby eggplant and capsicum with mottzarella cheese pizza.

Sorry no pictures, we were too hungry!!

Afterwards we had Peacherine Crumble.

Step 1
Cut peacherine's and then mascerate in sugar and marsarla and then poach.


Step 2
Put cooked peacherine's into a pie dish

Step 3
Make Crumble - mix rolled oats, brown sugar, butter, flour, mixed spice to bread crumb consistency.

Step 4
Cook at 180 for 20-30 minutes

Step 5
Eat (with cream as we did or ice cream or both)

Recipe Finder Sites

I got a request for a recipe finder site, you know where you can put in the ingredients you have and it spits out a great recipe - enabling you to declutter your cupboard. It is a great way to do this. I also go through my pantry once a year and anything that I have not used and is not out of date I donate to a giving tree. This year it was the giving tree at work, around Christmas time there are a lot of charity's looking for food donations. If you have serious congestion problems, you could do it in winter as well. Food is always needed.

So now you will see on the right hand site some suggestions for recipe finder sites (thanks for the great request JC), if you find better ones then let me know.

Aunty A

Calamari for Tea

We had a lovely repast of Calamari, seared lemon, steamed broccolini, fried garlic, pangrattato (basically fried or toasted breadcrumbs in garlic oil), and rocket salad.

Potato and bean salad with lemon yoghurt dressing

To serve 1

Ingredients
240g potatoes - unpeeled and cut into wedges
150g green beans, trimmed and cut into 3 cm lengths
1 cup baby rocket leaves
50 g (1/2) small red onion sliced thinly

Lemon Yoghurt Dressing
1/2 cup sheep milk yoghurt
1 tspn finely grated lemon rind
1 tbspn fresh lemon juice
1 tbspn finely chopped fresh flat leaf parsley

Method
Boil, steam or microwave potato and beans seperately, until tender, drain. Rinse beans under cold water, drain.
Meanwhile combine ingredients for lemon yoghurt dressing in small bowl
Place potato and beans in medium bowl with rocket and onion, toss gently top combine.
Serve salad drizzled with dressing.

And of course I did not follow the recipe slavishly -

• I used goats milk yohurt, as I did not have sheeps yoghurt
• baby spinach instead of rocket as I did not have rocket
  
• corriander instead of parsley, by mistake - was a good mistake and
  
• doubled it to feed both of us.

Enjoy!
Aunty A

Thai for dinner

JSR had a great game of golf today and came home loaded with chocolate from our friends C&M. He then made a beautiful Thai inspired dinner of prawns and scallops with a corriander, red onion, rocket and baby spinach salad. JSR added some lime juice to the egg mayonaise for the dressing.

Mediterranean Puff

I had arranged a special class for Andrew which finished at 9.15 - so I headed to TSS's place for a little refreshment, while waiting. First thing this morning Andrew decided he really did not want to go, even though it was for Manga art (his passion). Decided to head to TSS's anyway.
Checked out the food from the fridge, selected several video's from the collection for possible viewing and headed across the road for a bottle of vino. For less than $5.00 each we had our frugal feast!!

Photo courtesy of TSS

The dish is puff pastry with olives, fetta, sundried tomatoes and zucchini baked in the oven. Simple and delicious.

In the end we were so busy talking (not sure how that happened) that we did not get around to the video's.

642.4 Brunch

Photo courtesy of TSS

642.4 is the dewey number for casual dining, and when all is said and done I am a librarian!! There is a group of four of us who meet regularly to eat and chat and this is the feast we had last Sunday.

• Bagels and cream cheese,
  
• fruit platter,
  
• omelette,
  
• wilted spinach and garlic,
  
• salmon,
  
• olives,
  
• grilled haloumi, and
  
• tomatoes.

Champagne and OJ of course.

Yummy Frittata and Good for You Too!

Ingredients
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 small onion finely chopped
1 clove garlic finely crushed
2 cups (300 g) grated sweet potato
2 zucchini grated
1/4 cup basil leafs torn
1/2 cup grated low fat cheese
salt and pepper to taste
4 free range eggs
150g cherry tomatoes halved

Method
Preheat the oven to 180c. Lightly greese a 20cm round cake tin and line the base with non-stick baking paper.
Heat olive oil in a non stick frypan and cook the onion and garlic for 4 minutes or until soft. Add the sweet potato and zucchini and cook , stirring for 3 minutes, until softened slightly.
Transfer the vegetable mixture to a bowl and cool slightly. Mix in the basil and cheese, and season with salt and pepper. Stir to combine evenly. Fold in the eggs, and pour the mixture into the prepared tin. Smooth the surface.
Arrange the cherry tomatoes over the mixture, cut side up, and press in gently. Bake for 45 minutes, until set and golden. Leave in the tin until just cool enough to handle, then turn out and quickly invert right side up onto a plate.
Cut the fritatta into 6 wedges and serve with salad leaves, lightly dressed with lemon juice.

This is a great tasting frittata and I had one and half slices for tea and am taking a slice for lunch. Of course I varied the recipe. I put the tomatoes in cut side down and I served from the baking dish - most importantly I cooked this in the microwave for approximately 12 minutes - who has 45 minutes on a weeknight!!!

Enjoy.
Aunty A.

Some December Food

My current favourite Salad
lettuce, sun dried tomatoes, capsicum and corn - super easy super quick super healthy (no dressing required due to the oil from the tomatoes).

Gluten Free Cakes from Deeks



The three stooges make pizza. MLR's included chopped up dinosaur chicken pieces, AJR's was a Marguerita (cheese and tomato paste) and JSR's was a garlic and Parmesan one (not pictured). There was flour from one end of the kitchen to the other, as they made the bases from scratch. A great feast was had by all.

Aunty A.

Meals in the last week

Spanokopita.
This is a standard of mine.

Take 500gm frozen spinach, 250gm of ricotta or fetta, 3-5 spring onions chopped (or small onion chopped), dash of lime or lemon juice and two eggs.
Mix all ingredients and put into a 20cm pie dish. Take three leaves of filo pastry and fold each in half. Spray with oil and cover the pie dish, take the next leaf of filo and do it again, until you have used the filo. Bake in a moderate oven (185) until brown on top, about 25 minutes and serve immediately.

Risotto
1 and half cups of risotto rice, 5 spring onions, 1 litre of vegetable stock, 1 glass of white wine, 1 cup of water, vegetables as desired, 125gm parmesan.

Spray frypan with olive oil and toss rice and onions. Once they are coated with the oil, then add the wine. In the meantime heat the vegetable stock and water to boiling point. Ladle stock in one ladle at a time waiting for the stock to absorb, about 20 minutes, then add vegetables (capsicum, peas etc) and stir, once they are warmed through add the cheese and take off the heat and stir.

For this risotto follow the above recipe, but chop two small or one large fennel bulb, two large mushrooms (side plate size), half a cake of blue cheese (about 125 gms or what you like) and a half a cup of parsley. Add these ingredients just before you have added all the stock, to enable the mushrooms to cook.


Both risotto meals are vegetarian and gluten free. Serve both with a green salad. My favourite at the moment is a mix of salad greens, spinach leaves, rocket, with sundried tomatoes, pine nuts, corn and toss. Today I added cucumber, or you can add capsicum. Really does not need a dressing because of the oil from the tomatoes.

Dine on regional chow

This post is all CJK's fault!!!

The article (linked above) discusses eating regionally, within certain limits, such as 250 or 100 mile (it is a US article).

I thought it might be fun to try a dinner made this way! Of course if we limited it to my garden right now we would have a meal of parsley, rasberries (not sure if there are one or two rasberries on the vine), some tired lavender and under ripe peacherines!!

Here are some sources of local ingredients we could use - local to the Canberra region to about 100 miles.

Wine
Lets start with wine - Canberra grows a variety of wine in the local region, and is a cool climate wine grower. The main varieties include Chardonnay, Riesling, Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz and Pinot Noir with some Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon, Viognier, Sangovese and Merlot.

Map and description of 40 local wineries.

In 1853 John Hardy planted vines in Hardwick, near Yass. Helms wines are one of the earliest wineries in the district, still producing fine wine, with first plantings in 1973. There are tours you can take of the Canberra wineries, which is on my list of things to do in 2007. There is Kamberra wine company, which is an organisation that has its own wines, it showcases all Canberra region wines, runs wine appreciation courses (which I have attended) and does a lot to promote our wines.

Cheese
And what goes with wine, well cheese of course and so we find Bega Cheese.
Check the link out as it has great cheese recipes. So we have the makings of a good casual get together, but who knows about dinner. Bega cheese also produces milk and so along with the Capital Chilled Foods people who produce Canberra Milk, we should be able to drink something other than wine and water.

Meat
For those of us who are not yet vegetarian, we can get some locally produced, interesting and even gourmet meats, as well as smoked vegetables and fruits, from Poachers Pantry, near Hall in the ACT. It is right next door to Wily Trout Vinyard, planted in 1998/99. You can taste test both the wines and the gourmet foods in the one place.

Salad and Vegetables
To put olive oil on our salad, I have found Gundaroo Gold, an olive plantation. Hopefully they will sell at the farm gate. Williamsdale Organics is also a local producer of Olive Oil and other organic products like soap and shampoo (it is good to be clean). I have found a market garden out at Gundaroo, which looks good. The market garden is called Allsun Farm. This means we will be able to eat salad and other vegetables, with our meats, wines and cheeses. Alternatively Joyce Wilkie, a geologist turned farmer at Gundaroo, runs a subscription system in which you subscribe and then go out to the farm and pick what you have requested in your subscription. Often four families will subscribe and then each weekend one family goes out and brings back four boxes of fruit and vegies. Joyce also has free range hens and will supply eggs.

Vegetarian Option and Desert
With the eggs the milk and the cheese, we should be able to produce a vegetarian frittata and a pannecotta or other custard type dessert.

Food we will not be able to put on the table are things like, flour, rice, chocolate, coffee and tea. Anyone for dinner?