Time flies

In about 10 days I fly out to New York, then Berlin, Amsterdam, Paris, Italy and beyond! The last two weeks have flown. I've not done much else other than be caretaker to Mr T who had his appendix out last week and studied for an assessment I had today. Relief that's over! I give myself permission to get out and about again.

I did take some time out to bake this with the rhubarb that's growing happily in the garden. It is seriously delicious and goes so well with a cup of coffee.

Next week I'll do a whole lot of research in regards to the places I'm visiting, but if you have any recommendations for anything, anything at all, let me know!

Reasons

There as been much reason to celebrate of late. My Mum's 60th birthday, Mr T's Mum's birthday, the arrival of a friend's healthy baby girl and the moment I thought would never quite come, my last day of work for six months.

The antidote

... to our hot weather is homemade icy poles. This one is mango, natural yoghurt and cardamon. Not too sweet, but so refreshing. Experimenting is the key.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

With the impending OS trip, my family decided on a no presents year and Mr T and I decided that instead of Christmas gifts we'd treat ourselves to a night of decadent food and wines in the new year. Of course I'd bought a couple of gifts during the year before we'd made the arrangement, so there will be a present or two opened.

However in my household, no Christmas is complete without homemade food gifts. Beer & Chili peanut brittle and Irish Cream (sans almond essence).

I will not let the fact that on the eve of Christmas eve our olive tree was stolen for the third time (this time I reported it to the police). My neighbour noticed first thing this morning and gifted me another replacement tree.

Stick 'o Hot Choc

These have totally done the blog rounds, but I thought I'd have a crack, because I think they make a nice little gift. I breakfasted with my girls this morning, and while we did do a Kris Kringle I wanted to give something a little extra.

Of course I had to taste test too. It makes for a pretty decadent hot chocolate.
I'm looking forward to experimenting with a more flavour additions (I added vanilla extract) but wouldn't mind trying cinnamon, orange, coffee and most of all chili.

Bubble tea

While shopping for wonton wrappers last weekend, I stumbled across dried tapioca pearls used in bubble tea. This household likes bubble tea. But making it yourself means you can dial down the sweetness.

First I made tea. Any black tea will do.
I prepared the tapioca pearls according to these directions.
For best results serve the tapioca pearls slightly warm or at room temperature. When cold they're hard in the middle, not soft like they should be.

• 1-2 tbs prepared tapioca pearls • 1 cup cold tea • 1 tsp sweetened condensed milk (low fat is fine) • 1 dash milk.
Add all to a glass and stir stir stir to dissolve the condensed milk. Drink the deliciousness wishing you had one of those fat straws to assist with eating of the pearls. Though a spoon will do and it's far more environmentally friendly!

Beetroot wonton raviloi revisited

As requested, it's a little time consuming, but makes for a nice meal.

Start by roasting 200-250g beetroot wrapped in foil at 180C for ~50 mins.
At the 40 min mark, throw 2 cloves of garlic in the oven, still in their skin and a handful of hazelnuts. Roast these for 10 min.

Once done, process the beetroot, roasted garlic cloves, 200-205g ricotta, 30-40g Parmesan cheese, salt & pepper to a smooth paste.

Place a generous teaspoon of the beetroot mix onto a wonton and sandwich with another wonton wrapper, making sure to wet the edges so that they seal properly. I use a fork to press along the sides.

Cook 'ravioli' in rolling boiling water until they float. Or the wonton become translucent. It won't take long

Serve with a burnt butter and sage, and roasted hazelnuts

Hints and tips.
• You can use either yellow or white wrappers. I preferred the white, though they didn't seal as well as the yellow. Mr T preferred the yellow, he said they were richer.
• 4 per serve works pretty well, if you serve with a side of greens.
• They freeze beautifully, making for a super easy and speedy midweek meal

I might try steaming them next time. I'll update here if it works well.

Lemon passionfruit delicious

Oh yes. This will be made again. And again.
Two changes, I upped the flour to 1/3 cup and I cooked it in four ramekins for about 40 mins.
Light and fluffy on top, with a curd like consistency at the bottom. Delicious indeed.

The week in green

We have 1000 thread count sheets, but I much prefer the feel of basic Ikea cotton sheets. We got a new set, there's something about the green that reminds me of my childhood.

The basil is sitting happily on the kitchen windowsill getting the morning sun, while the homegrown garlic behind it is four weeks away from use.

And sadly I ate the last of our green tea kit kat supply. Sweetness from the white/green 'chocolate' and the slight bitterness of green tea, a perfect combination!

The weekend

Late for a recap, I know. My weekend was about movies (Wild Target, The Hurt Locker), cabin fever due to all the rain, Mr T ripping out our laundry, a hellish trip to Ikea and highly coloured food.

The beetroot ravioli was delicious, I totally cheated and used won ton wrappers for the pastry, next time I'll hunt out the white ones though, these were a touch glutinous. For dessert it was all about the green tea macaron filled with a simple cream cheese based icing; passionfruit or chocolate flavoured. Personally I thought the chocolate let the green tea flavour come through better, but Mr T preferred the over powering passionfruit.

Sunday eats

It was just one of those Sunday's that called for pizza. I was happy to oblige. My weekend continues, until Tuesday.

The weekend

I was a bit of a sloth yesterday, it was kinda nice sleeping in, reading the paper and drinking cups of coffee in bed. I whipped up the store bought meringues pretty quickly for dinner/dessert with the girls. Mascarpone, sweetened with vanilla sugar, fresh strawberries and a home made & grown passionfruit sauce. A nice mix of sweet and tart.

Indoor kinda weather

It's been an easy Saturday, after brunching with friends at St Ali, we popped into the South Melbourne Market for some supplies and I then proceeded to potter in the kitchen while Mr T spent quality time in his garage.

To fuel for tomorrow we'll be having baked homemade gnocchi.

I also made this broccoli slaw but with my go to dressing of horseradish & light whole egg mayo - thinned with a bit of water.

The weekend

...was indeed a good one. Staring off with an impromptu birthday dinner on Friday night for my brother, including chocolate cinnamon chili cupcakes with a salted caramel icing. What better way to celebrate his 30th on Saturday than with a premiership! Yes, the Pies were indeed the better side on the day. Then finished off Sunday with extra hour of sunlight. If only the weekend could have lasted a little longer...

Preparation is the key

It's my Bro's birthday this weekend. A significant one at that. There will be cake. Oh yes, there will be cake.

Starting the week easy

I tend to ease into cooking for the week. Monday night is usually the simplest of them all. Particularly the case this week as I'm still reeling from Saturday's draw. We've got to do it all again next weekend!

The ricotta stuffed shells are inspired by a Donna Hay recipe.

Ingredients
Pasta: 5-6 shells per person. I cook a couple extra, because if you're not careful the shells tear or stick rendering them almost useless. These are pricey at my local deli, I'm going to try and stock up at Mediterranean Wholesalers when I finally get there.
Sauce: Onion and garlic sauteed with 400g chopped tomatoes (canned is fine), a pinch of chili flakes and a couple of anchovy fillets (optional)
Ricotta mix: 400g ricotta, sprinkle nutmeg, salt & pepper, two small squares of defrosted frozen spinach
Extras: Handful tasty cheese for the top and a pinch of pesto for each shell (again optional)

Cook tomato sauce.
Cook shells - I suggest plenty of gentle stirring to avoid sticking.
Drain shells - doesn't matter if they're still a bit wet.
Spread tomato sauce on base of baking dish, arrange shells and stuff with ricotta mix.
Sprinkle with cheese and pesto if using and bake in 200C oven for 15 mins.

I serve mine with some par boiled broccoli, toasted almonds, plenty of lemon juice and a bit of butter.

Serves 4 and is easy to scale.

It ain't pretty

It doesn't get much better than a call from Mum asking me if I want to cross cooking a whole fish off my '10 things in 2010' list. Hell yes I do. Even better when she'll be supplying the fish.

It was 1.1kg of ocean trout, marinated with Chermoula, wrapped in baking paper and cooked in the oven, served with smashed potatoes and bok choy. The four of us devoured it all.

Smoked fish salad

This is a keeper, from a relatively recent Donna Hay magazine. I like to start it the night before, by boiling the potatoes. It's almost impossible to find smoked trout in our poorly stocked local supermarket, so I almost always use a fillet of smoked salmon instead. The brackets indicate my deviations from the recipe. This one's for you R.

Salad ingredients:
800g baby potatoes (regular work fine too) • Olive oil • 2 bunches baby beetroot (or 2 medium beetroot) • 400g smoked trout (or salmon) fillet, flaked • 1 bunch watercress, leaves picked (or rocket & spinach mix) • 400g broad beans, blanched and peeled (I usually forget these)

Dressing ingredients, combine:
• 1/2 cup whole egg mayo (low fat) • 1 tbs grated horseradish (Yumi's is good) • 1 garlic clove crushed • 1 tbs white wine vinegar • salt and pepper • (and sometimes a dash of water to thin out the dressing)

Heat the oven to 220C/425F.
Boil the potatoes until tender, then smash/squish on a baking tray, drizzle with oil and bake until golden. Bake the 2 beetroot at the same time, wrapped in foil. ~30 mins. If you have baby beets, it's suggested that you just coat them in oil and bake.
Once tender, peel the beetroot (gloves are handy here) and chop.
Assemble salad and spoon over dressing.

Apple crumble slice

I recently re-subscribed to Donna Hay magazine, but made a promise to myself that I'd actually try the recipes rather than delight in the styling and photography. I'm not sure sourcing this recipe counts... for what it's worth it makes a pretty good half time treat at the footy, even if it's not served on floral plates.

It ain't pretty

As I alluded to yesterday, it's been a long week. However I was pretty happy to cruise home on my bike knowing that I was in for a treat. A nourishing bowl of vegetables. Something that has been sorely missing from my diet this week. When I know I'm not cooking for Mr T I make a beeline for 101 cookbooks. Tonight it was all about the Sushi bowl.

I almost followed the recipe to a tee, however once the rice was cooked I threw my rice serving plus a handful of grated carrot and zucchini into the microwave for 30 seconds and I also opted to top with an egg omelette. Delicious.