“Napoleon, Make Yourself A Dang Quesadilla!”

3 Comments

This Monday is Wellington Anniversary Day; which I can’t honestly say means too much to me except that I get to neatly evade the worst day of the week. Hoorah! The weather has finally sorted itself out, and is actually being summery. For a while there it was both humid and windy, which is the worst of both worlds; you’re sweating like a mule and your hair’s a disaster.

I have been cooking more goodies out of Nigella Express. Witness:
Above: Sesame Peanut Noodles – the dressing has peanut butter and sesame oil in it and is seriously good. Oh and yes, that is a Nigella Mini Whisk, which I bought on a self-indulgent whim recently, and used to make the dressing. Already I’m wondering how I lived without it…like a true Nigellavangelist. You may have noticed that I am trying very hard to work my word into the common vernacular (surely there are endless possibilities for its use?) but Google hasn’t been very useful for information on how to copyright a word.
With these noodles we had Nigella’s cocktail sausages, which is, admittedly, an incongruous pairing, but as they were cooked with similar flavours – sesame, soy, honey – it actually worked. Unlike the photo, which I won’t post because it showcases how filthy our roasting dish looks…

Above:Two of Tim’s friends stayed for the weekend, and I made us all dinner last night. Nigella’s Quesadillas were very well received (there’s nothing like the smell of melting cheese…) which I served with a rice pilaf and a salad of avocado and roasted cauliflower and capsicum.

Above: I got some cheap avocados at Moore Wilsons…I think I could eat an avocado every single day and never get sick of them. They always taste like a treat, you know?
Above: Something completely impractical and yet somehow necessary: DIY chocolate croissants. They are really far too small to bear the name of croissant in my opinion, but they are so easy and lovely and it is such a novel idea. Thankyou, Nigella. Two ingredients: puff pastry and chocolate. The most difficult thing, for a geometry-challenged gal like myself, was cutting the triangles correctly. In case you were concerned, I made them on the washing machine because…it was the only benchspace we had that morning. By the way am I the only one who thinks the rolled up pastries look not unlike the tiny paper creatures that torment and chase Haku in Spirited Away?

Above: Sorry again for the overexposed photos. I am no Annie Leibovitz. Heck, I’m not even Nigel Barker. But you’d think I could figure out how to make photos people can actually look at…

Back to the wee pastries – they were delicious, and fun, and just as easy to eat as they genuinely were to make.

Above: Sticking with the chocolate theme, I decided to make a cake, for general picking at over the weekend. I used a Nigella recipe from How To Eat which is a fantastic, one-pot melt and mix sort of thing which produces a luscious, moist cake with very little fuss. Note the mini-whisk again, which did a stirling job of amalgamating this darkly rich mixture.
Above: Caution: I baked the mix in two 20cm tins, with the hopes of sandwiching it together with custard buttercream…but they turned out super flat, like chocolate pancakes. Delicious chocolate pancakes, but nonetheless, I recommend just using one tin, like she says in the recipe. It still tasted great though and the buttercream filling that I made plumped it up somewhat.
I have to say we have been eating a lot of what some might call junk over the weekend…which may have something to do with going into town last night…and not going to bed till 4am…

“Express Yourself (Hey Hey!)”

8 Comments

Where on earth am I going with this? Well, Express Yourself has always been a Madonna song that I liked, and since I have been cooking from Nigella Express…You know, I do realise that if you have to explain a joke it means it’s not very funny. I should really try to stop being so verbose and just tell you what we had for dinner.

That’s right – “we.” Tim is back! By the by, Ange and I made Emma watch Rent. She said something along the lines of “Well that wasn’t as awful as I thought.” The next day she said she couldn’t get the songs out of her head. I think we are on to something. Tim said not to hold my breath that he would become a fan. I still have hope. I mean, I got him to like Neil Young (but then how could anyone with ears and a soul not…okay, onto the food.)


Above: My first Nigella Express recipe: Linguine with Mushrooms, Lemon and Thyme. It is so simple – chop up button mushrooms, let them sit in olive oil, lemon juice, salt and thyme while you put the water on to boil for the pasta. Let the pasta cook, stir the lot together, and hey presto. I must admit that the marinading mushrooms were so magically delicious that I nearly snarfed the lot before putting them in the pasta. This was Monday night’s dinner. I met Tim at the train station where his bus was getting in (he didn’t know I was coming; he doesn’t have the monopoly on impulsive gestures you know) and it took us a while to get home and this was still quick to make. And seriously easy to eat as well.


Above: Grilled Cheese Sandwich with Coleslaw, which was last night’s dinner. It might sound a little low-rent, but sometimes that is what you desire. This hails from the chapter “Instant Calmers” and indeed, calms instantly. I didn’t follow the recipe to the letter, not that I think it matters since Nigella is constantly encouraging the reader to play around and not be so stringent. I used the sandwich press that I got for my 21st birthday (and a very handy present it is, too) and made the slaw – all very quickly. So quickly that I got a bit silly and decided to make potato cakes too…Well, Tim does need the carbs.


Above: Sorry the images are a little over-exposed, Tim’s camera bit the dust and I don’t know how to change the settings on Stefan’s one. Anyway, this was never going to be one of those blogs with really professional looking pictures. We are looking for a new camera today though, I promise! These are the potato cakes, which Nigella gives as a kind of canape recipe with smoked salmon and shots of vodka. (I’m guessing the latter is optional, but adds extra Swede-ness.) I know anything that you have to fry and flip pancake-style looks like a drag but these are so easy, and charmingly are made from instant potato flakes. They took three seconds to mix together, cooked quickly, and tasted wonderful spread with hummous. And I made the whole lot – potato cakes, sandwiches, coleslaw – in about 20 minutes. It is very exciting. For me. I realise not everyone is as Nigellavangelical as I.


Above: This is what I am really excited about. Nectarine and Blueberry Gallette. I have never bought pre-made pastry in my life – not necessarily because of some snobbish instinct, although I do like to make my own shortcrust – but after reading through Nigella Express I bought a pack of puff pastry sheets (surprisingly reasonably priced, too.) Fruit is marvelously cheap at the moment (better eat up for when it skyrockets in winter) and so I splashed out and got the ingredients for this recipe. It is so simple: Score a one inch frame round a square of puff pastry. Brush the inner square with a spoonful each of jam and cream (I used milk, was all we had.) Tumble over blueberries and sliced nectarine. Bake at 220 C for 15 minutes. And you end up with the most gorgeous, puffy, delicious pudding.


Above: Make it! I urge you!

Ange has caught a bus up to Auckland to go to the Big Day Out, which we aren’t going to – I am really looking forward to Rufus Wainwright though. Tonight Tim and I are going out to dinner (because I have a voucher) and afterwards we are going to the flicks to see The Darjeeling Limited (because he has a voucher.) Our date nights are largely supplemented by other people, it would seem…

It’s a Lot Better…

4 Comments

With a lot of butter, to paraphrase the old TV ads. Tim still isn’t back, which makes cooking a little interesting, not because I can’t eat without him (quite the opposite, unfortunately) but because I can’t do a big grocery shop. I’ve moved on from bags of twisties for dinner but am still requiring comfort food it would seem, to wit – starch. Ange and I went to the vege market this morning, and came back via New World Metro, where I purchased about 12 different varieties of carbohydrate (tortillas, egg noodles, arborio rice…okay that’s it really.) I’ll just deviate briefly here to rant about how unbelievably expensive dairy is at the moment! $15 for a kilo of cheese! You could get a kilo of ground almonds for that price (trust me, you can!) In this land of milk and honey, it’s no wonder parents are giving their children coca cola to drink, because the milk is too expensive. Dairy me! (but really.) Don’t even get me started on the insultingly non-summery Wellington weather.

I have finished reading Nigella Express, and despite being a trifle apprehensive at first (it has recieved a mixed reception) I am in love. What a fantastic, practical book, positively brimming with recipe after recipe, perfect for midweek dinner. Everything looks so inspiring and fresh and delicious. There has been a bit of brouhaha (or fooforah?) over her use of canned foods and prepackaged things; I think this is rediculous. Firstly, she explains that she does this because it saves time, secondly she stipulates that you use excellent quality canned stuff, thirdly, she does it so self-deprecatingly that you know she hasn’t completely turned into some kind of person shilling for microwaved meals. Again, this book is so practical I could see myself using it every day of the week. I still haven’t cooked anything from it though – I’m waiting till Tim gets back, whenever that may be.


Above: Sorry the photo of my mushroom risotto is a little psychedelic; I had to borrow Stephan’s camera and for some reason the flash was very intense.

For dinner tonight I made myself Nigella’s Restrained Mushroom Risotto from How To Eat. I had some button mushrooms from the market, some dried porcini and Knorr porcini stock cubes from my aunty Lynn, and some Porcini powder from the lovely Linda. A ‘shroom extravaganza, you could say. I decided in the end to leave out the whole porcini, I thought it might be a little strong, and opted for a more mellow triple-shroom combo of buttons, stock, and powder. Indeed, this risotto would have been titularly restrained, healthful even, were it not for…the mountains of butter I kept stirring through it. I can’t even blame this on Tim’s absense, I am just pathologically drawn towards the stuff it would seem. The risotto tasted incredible though – definitely something I will make again. It was rich, creamy, and intensely flavoursome, and the porcini powder – although essentially glorified dust – gave it a genuine, woodsy kick.

I made a cake yesterday: The Damp Apple and Almond cake from Feast, which is presented as a pudding option for a Passover feast. There were no such celebrations at Casa Hadfield, but the cake was enjoyed all the same. It is gluten-free, incredibly moist, and very easy to make. Not a cheap cake – 8 eggs and 300g ground almonds – but as I’d bought a kilo of them from Moore Wilsons before Christmas (telling myself it was cheaper in the long run) I figured I was halfway there.


Above: Told you it was eggy…Wooden spoon courtesy of my younger brother who got me a bunch for Christmas – I can never have enough wooden spoons. Like I said, this is a very easy cake to make – all you do is cook some apples to mush, then the rest is light stirring. The mixture is very dense, as you could imagine with all those almonds.


Above: The cake was delicious, very grown up tasting and quite filling – it’s not often you’ll see me stopping at one slice.

In other news, Ange and I watched Rent the other day and…she loved it. I could not be happier with this turn of events, indeed it gives me hope that one day Tim will like it too. I also like this movie better than ever – some movies grow worse for repeat viewings but this one actually gets better every time.

"I’m On Call, To Be There…I’ll Come A Running"

5 Comments

I got back from the Kings of Leon concert about half an hour ago, and have just been chilling, even though it’s around midnight now. I haven’t posted for a while what with one thing and another, but hopefully I can soon get back into my “happy little rut,” as Marge Simpson calls it, of cooking dinner and photographing it and subsequently writing about it.

I found out two days ago that Tim’s uncle, a man that I liked a lot, had died unexpectedly. Tim and his entire family are foremost in my thoughts at all times. I won’t say much more about that, but Tim couldn’t go to the concert tonight and I couldn’t go to be with him or be there for him, leaving me feeling a little muddled, helpless even. I don’t know when he will be coming back here, which is obviously understandable, but it certainly changed my feelings about going to the Kings of Leon gig, it felt odd to be doing something so frivolous. But I went, and so did some of my flatmates, and the band were amazing – absolutely wonderful. The title for this post comes from one of their songs, by the way.

Ange, who used to live with us (and is therefore a card-carrying member of Team Hadfield) dragged me right up the front of the crowd, a place I am normally far too bashful and nervous to approach. I ended up getting an absolutely incredible view of the band, and was able to hold my own during all the pushing and shoving. Afterwards, our flatmate Stefan met up with his cousin, who was also at the gig. His cousin, the jammy dodger, had caught the guitar pick that the lead singer threw into the audience! And I got to touch it! Squeeeee! Seriously, I think the Kings of Leon do such fantastic music, all Southern and bluesy and brilliant (I refuse to say “whisky-soaked,” that overused phrase.) If you don’t like their music you barely deserve ears. But really – try it sometime. For newcomers, I recommend their first album Youth and Young Manhood.


Above: Because this is a food blog, I thought I oughta show you what I had for dinner. Yes, an entire bag of twisties. Well, they’re comforting, in their own funny way. As I ate I was reminded of when I was younger and would tell myself that “when I grow up” I’m going to eat nothing but, say, cheezels and roast chicken and butterscotch sauce all day long. I have to admit, all the sodium and yellow food colouring made me feel a tiny bit odd in the stomach as I jumped up and down at the concert.


Above: The kindness of strangers reminds me that it is in fact an okay world, after all. The lovely Jilly, from the food forum I frequent, sent me the long-coveted Nigella Express all the way from Australia- simply because she had an extra copy. If that isn’t the nicest thing you’ve ever heard…another act of kindness came from Linda from the same forum, who sent me some porcini powder ‘just because.’ Thankyou both ENORMOUSLY! I haven’t read much of Nigella’s new tome so I am very excited about getting into it at last.

“Now Is The Summer of Our Disco-Tent”

6 Comments

or, Happy Belated New Year. I am back in Wellington to resume working – flew in today – camping is over for another year. I read 13 books, drank vodka-and-tonics, stayed largely sunsmart and saw lots of family. Perfect. It is the vodka component of that last sentence which gives us our title – the most sublime pun I have ever had the good fortune to experience (courtesy of Mum.)


Above: It’s a disco ball. Shaped like a vodka bottle. Suspended from a tent pole. Camping somehow gets camp-er.

Tim bought it for me impulsively (a habit of his I must remember to nurture and encourage) – a litre of the excellent Absolut Vodka, encased in a disco-reflecto-casing that, with a light trained on it (as we did) becomes a working disco ball, and nothing if not an excellent talking point. You could say it made our summer complete. I haven’t been feeling so well the last couple of days, (kidney trouble I suspect) but I was still sad to leave the annual camping compound. Thank goodness it is a sunny day in Wellington today; I am reminded why I love the place. If it was the usual grey and windy I would probably just feel resentful. Tim isn’t actually here with me, as his sister has just returned from a gap year, so I am armed with DVDs of Sex and The City which I can enjoy wholeheartedly without someone asking for the thirtieth time how Carrie has become a fashion icon.


Above: This is definitely a little behind the times but the colours looked lovely and besides, it’s my blog so I can do what I want, continuity be damned! These delicious sweeties were made my my aunt, (except for the berries; her talent has limits) and we ate this alongside the pomegranate cake at Christmas.


Above: Sample camping dinner – pita pockets, minced beef with cumin, garlic and cinnamon, and salad. I haven’t been so hungry the last couple of days, what with feeling under the weather and all, but we definitely ate well.


Above: The Non-Cake Maker’s Christmas Cake from Nigella’s Feast. For a cumbersome title it certainly is an easy and rewarding baking venture. If it looks a trifle lopsided, it’s because the paper collar baked into the mixture – I do hate it when recipes ask you to line the sides of the tin, because I inevitably muck it up. I used the rest of the rhubarb fruit mince, and while I haven’t tried any cake, it definitely smelled wonderful and seemed like a great idea – just a basic cake mixture, with brown sugar and fruit mince added.

I have with me a bowl of salad, I think I’ll call it lunch, and a whole lot of unpacking to do. Can a certain favourite musical of mine be consulted for an ever-reliable quote? Of course – “It’s gonna be a happy New Year!”

Benny: “And The Owner Of That Lot Next Door Has A Right To Do With It As He Pleases” Collins: “Happy Birthday, Jesus.”

2 Comments

As the above quote shows, Rent, though written in the nineties and set in the eighties, can still be relevant to people today. Well, me, at least. My parents’ house – the place I grew up in – is mere pit-spitting distance from what used to be the local tavern, back when tiny country villages patronised such premises. It has long been closed down, but now a company wants to turn it into an enormous, chugging oil-rerefinery, which will mean that as we look out our windows the spectre of sky-high silos will greet us. So, the small community is doing its Erin Brockovich Darn’dest to oppose this, but unfortunately, like Maureen’s laboured protest in Rent, we don’t have all that much to fight with.

Meanwhile, camping is blissful, and I am spending a brief hiatus at home in order to pick up Tim, who is travelling up to join us today. I realise Christmas is old news now, but because I have been a trifle busy/lazy, I haven’t got around to posting the pictures till now. Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were both a complete flurry of mad cooking in the midday sun.


Above: Nigella’s Frangipane Christmas Mince Tarts. Any smugness I felt at actually making my own fruit mince to put in the pastry cases was swiftly obliterated as I grappled with the nightmare that was the pastry. My parents don’t own a food processor (they do have a blender, so they aren’t complete heathens) so I had to make it by hand, which in the oppressive heat doesn’t make for cooperative pastry. I ended up patching bits onto each other, praying that it wouldn’t stick to the tins, and couldn’t roll it out for love nor money so I only got to make a half batch.


Above: Luckily the sodding things were delicious…all smugness returned.


Above: I made two of the Marzipan Fruit Cakes from How To Be A Domestic Goddess, to give away as presents. They are very easy to make, and the mixture is delicious, all orange scented and rummy. The only difficult thing was lining the sides of the tins with baking paper. Nearly ended up throwing the whole thing out the window.


Above: The baked cake, paper lining and all. Chunks of real marzipan and dried pears make this rather different and luxe, but also make it a mission to stir without flinging chunks of batter into one’s hair.

I don’t seem to have any photos of the Christmas lunch itself, which must have been on a different camera. It was a very relaxed, joyfully low-key affair, and we feasted upon roasted lamb with Za’tar (Christmas present!!), roast chicken, new potatoes, and roasted capsicum, beetroot, and zucchini .


Above: Nigella’s Pomegranate Jewel Cake, from Feast. The perfect cake for (a) a family with members dabbling in Gluten-free, and (b) a family whose members uncharacteristically do not want anything tooo rich for pudding. It is also perfect for Rosh Hashana, for that is the chapter in Feast it came from. It is not, however, a cake to make when you are stressed and have fifty thousand other things that need baking too and you suspect your oven is on the blink. Miraculously everything got cooked in the end, and I even managed to turn this slightly fragile cake out onto its own plate (not having the right-sized springform tin.) Pomegranates are expensive in Waiuku so I only used one, not the two that the recipe stipulated, but I think this still looks gorgeously rubied and very, (although not obviously intentionally), Christmassy.

So that was Christmas Day, and we did the whole shebang again on Christmas Night with a family who have been our neighbours, one way or another, for many many generations, and who are exactly the sort of people you would want to have second pudding of the day with. Now that we are out camping we are still eating very well; I would be able to show you photos as evidence but Blogger won’t upload for some reason. We have been camping there for 21 years now, and each year it gets better and better, but also more crowded unfortunately. I have already read four-and-a-half books – what more could one want for their summer?

"Up With My Tent!"

3 Comments

…so spake Shakespeare’s Richard III before launching into battle with Richmond, he of the perfectly coiffed hair and charming Welsh accent – at least in the BBC version.

It is also what I would have been saying today had it not been raining intermittently, followed by an icy blast of clattering hailstorms tonight. It is still bucketing down now. We managed to find a brief patch of sun in which to claim a patch of ground at the campsite, in the manner of the Outrageous Fortune Christmas Special – but in this weather I fear for the state of the tents which we left behind as a marker of our territory. Nevermind – being damp and uncomfortable is part of the many joys of camping.

In other news, I spent Boxing Day eating leftovers and reading the charming Anne of Green Gables,wishing resentfully all the while that my eyes were at least half as starry as the titular Anne’s are constantly made out to be. I hope everyone had a fabulous Christmas. As at least a third of my readership spent Christmas in my company, I know I can reply fairly confidently that yes, it was a great day. Actual blogging will ensue shortly, with lots of pictures of the “flesh and wine” that was consumed in enormous proportions.

I am, however, still stinging at the $80 that Pacific Blue charged me in overweight luggage fines…

I’ll Be Home For Christmas…

Leave a comment

But Tim won’t be. I have just returned from the cable car, where I left Tim who was on his way to get his bus to Palmerston North. I’m catching a flight in an hour to Auckland…I know it’s only a week, but why oh why is Palmerston North so far away from Waiuku? Anyway, no need to be doleful because Christmas is nearly here! Hoorah! Fa la la la la! Today is the 23rd of December, “Little Christmas Eve” as my brother and I call it, and this is my last post from Hadfield for the year – next time it will be from the computer at home, and possibly after Christmas.

We have been eating funny meals lately, lots of bits and pieces. We had some bananas growing rapidly decrepit in the fruit bowl, so I thought I’d better make something with them. I ended up making the Banana Muffins from Nigella’s How To Be A Domestic Goddess. I had previously bypassed this recipe because, well, it didn’t really interest me – banana muffins are nice and all, but nothing new, if you know what I mean. Well I should have known that Nige would be able to create something exciting from even the most commonplace thing. The muffins were wonderful – light, spongy, redolent with honey. There is only 2 tablespoons of honey, no actual sugar, only 30g butter (bugger all when shared between 12 cakes) no eggs and no milk. I almost thought there was a typo when I first scanned the page – what on earth held the mixture together, I don’t know, but again, they tasted beautiful.


Above: Nigella’s banana muffins. Eating is believing – these really are special.


Above: Last night’s dinner was effectively the last meal I was going to be cooking for Tim and I before we went our separate ways, and anyone who knows how I feel about cooking dinner will know that this is a big deal. I didn’t want to spend any more money on food, so I followed Nigella’s wonderful pasta recipe, which makes a feast out of bugger all (some flour and a couple of eggs.)

There is a running joke in the flat that Tim and I get very, very tense with each other while trying to wrangle the pasta maker, causing the other flatmates to get nervous at its very presence. Luckily we were mature enough to work out our differences last night, even when I accidentally left the cut pasta in a fast-congealing lump and we had to re-roll the whole lot again. The pasta machine was an impulse buy (as one does) but is worth the effort for the silky, tender, unbelievably delicious pasta it yields.


Above: I tossed the pasta in a little butter and freshly grated nutmeg, and roasted the last of whatever veges we had in the fridge to go with it. Delicious!


Above: Because we are so recklessly impulsive, Kieran, Tim and I decided to go out for breakfast this morning instead of packing. Which is, to be fair, a rather miserable job. We went to Epic again, and it was just as amazing as it was last time. From left – Kieran’s Eggs Montreal, my Vegan big breakfast (“The Herbivore”) and Tim’s Ranch-style cookup. I didn’t feel like anything too heavy, which is why I uncharacteristically went for the vegan feed. It was perfectly filling, the veges were delicious and the grainy bread it was served on was incredible. We sat outside in the sun and sipped spirulinas with our meals. Seriously – go there if you are in Wellington.

Now I have to run round and do that last minute panic thing, as you do, and say goodbye to the goldfish. Not sure when my next post will be but I’m sure everyone’s far too busy to be online anyway. My bags are laden with all the foodie gifts I’ve made for people – I hope like heck that I don’t get fined for overweight luggage at the airport. Merry Christmas Everyone!!

“Oh, The Weather Outside Is Frightful”

2 Comments

But let me tell you, this cheesecake is delightful.


Above: It worked! Oh how it worked. Nigella has a whole stash of cheesecake recipes that up until now I’d put in the basket labelled “hmm looks pleasantly gratifying but a little too hard and – waterbath! Heck no, sister!” Am now a complete convert.

It shows that you really should trust more in Nigella, when she says not to be put off by the waterbath…well, don’t be. Wrapping the batter-filled tin with foil and placing it in a roasting dish, which I filled with boiling water and then got Tim to ferry precariously to the oven – well it wasn’t that difficult at all. Now I’m looking forward to trying out in the future her chocolate cheesecake, New York cheesecake, apple cheesecake…and maybe taking out shares in Philadelphia cheese.


Above: Just to put it in context, (and because it’s not all about me) I’d better mention that we had a shared dinner on Wednesday night – it was supposed to be a barbeque but it was hosing down with rain, in a non-summery kind of way. Naturally, it was the day that Tim and I picked three weeks ago to go Christmas shopping. What a long day! I was exhausted by the end of it all, (and terrified to look at my bank balance!) We went into the Christmas Grotto (or whatever they are calling it these days) at Kirkcaldie and Staines, and nearly had a hernia at all the blinking lights. There were different ‘concept’ trees everywhere, and Tim and I (okay, mostly Tim) estimated that one tree alone -we checked some price tags- would cost upward of $3000 if you wanted to duplicate it in your home. We also found this music box that – would you believe it – recreated the entire Nutcracker ballet with little cake decoration dolls and scene changes and everything. I dragged Tim through the Cuisine section (“This would be such a thoughtful gift for someone”) before we trudged out into the rain to recommence.

Tim made some sugar free jellies in my old fashioned moulds for dessert on Wednesday. One was a 21st birthday present from my mother’s sister, and the other was something I scavenged out in a second hand shop. He turned them out onto the plate with ease and don’t they look all jewel-like and festive! The cheesecake tasted lovely – very creamy but also tangy with lime, and the chocolate base was very, very moreish.

I made kedgeree for dinner last night, in one of those “Good grief what on earth will we have for dinner” moments that occur sometimes. Kedgeree always reminds me of Dad because he would often cook it for us at home, though I admit it’s not something, to paraphrase Nigella, that you would serve to the ambassador of India. What we ate last night was merely cooked rice with frozen peas, a tin of tuna, some hard boiled eggs and spices stirred through. Still delicious and a good store-cupboard fallback.

Can’t tell you what else I cooked last night because there is a good percentage of my readership for whom it will be a Christmas present! I know something you don’t know…tee hee.

Let The Good Times Roll

3 Comments

It is hard to contemplate (A) that it is exactly one week till Christmas and (B) that Outrageous Fortune has really finished- it just doesn’t feel like a Tuesday without it. Tim and I are getting up super early tomorrow to go Christmas shopping, so hopefully there is nice weather for it – there were massive wintry rainfalls today which was a bit worrisome.

I’ve been trying to make sure we eat relatively healthily this week. It doesn’t always work.

Above: I always thought that rice paper rolls were a bit like haircuts – best done by professionals. But the recipe in Nigella’s Forever Summer showed me that they were in fact, incredibly do-able. A little fiddly, yes, but nevertheless a simple, impressive, and healthy nibble. We even made them while camping last year, if that is any indication of their non-threateningness (should such a word exist.) I made very simple rolls on Sunday night – just grated carrot, sliced avocado and mint, no noodles or anything. I think they were in fact the nicest ones I have ever made. Once you get into a rhythm of dunking the rice paper, laying the filling on their softened surfaces, and rolling them up, there’s not much to it at all.
Above: The rice paper rolls were a precursor to our actual dinner, which consisted of roasted vegetables, boiled potatoes, and my usual fall-back when I have no idea what to cook for dinner but Tim wants some kind of meat component to the meal – mince spiced with cumin, cinnamon, etc. I added some cooked down red lentils to the mince, just to make it all the more sparklingly healthy, and grated in some carrot. All in all a model dinner…until…

Above: The real Canadian cake! Alicia’s friend sent her a box of Betty Crocker cake mix, complete with a TUB OF ICING and we made it after dinner. Although I am generally vehemently opposed to cakes made from boxes, I was intrigued to say the least. You might not be able to see it in the photo but everything on the packaging is charmingly translated into French as well as English. Anyway, we mixed this up and baked it while watching the Simpsons movie on DVD. How do I put this – the cake was appallingly fabulous. It had this spookily puffy, moist texture, like something not found in nature, and the icing tasted like butter. It also had little clumps of e-numbers, I mean sprinkles, clustered throughout. It tasted pretty amazing, but left me rolling around groaning afterwards, filled with too much sugar.

Above: This was last night’s dinner and I have to say, all self-congratulatory, that it was an absolute stonker of a feed. Tim and I went to New World Metro in town to grab some milk after work and ended up spontaneously buying some steak for dinner. I followed a recipe from the New Zealand cookbook, which basically involves frying it and deglazing the pan with sherry and cream. I used the sherry Mum gave me, and the little bit of cream that I had leftover from the pav. Well. It tasted INCREDIBLE, like restaurant food or something. The smell, when the sherry hits the hot pan and starts sizzling, is sensational.
To go with I made a salad of raw, sliced beetroot, blanched brocolli, and cashews, which was very fresh and crisp tasting, and roasted some potatoes. What a feast.

Above: Tonight I kept it fairly simple. Penne pasta, with avocado and roasted beetroot, capsicum, and courgette. I drizzled over a little of the basil oil that Mum and Dad got me when they went to Australia earlier this year, and it was the perfect foil for the mix of flavours on the plate. The beetroot inevitably stained the pasta, but I thought the combo looked rather festive.
Above: Well, I kept it simple until I started to make baked cheesecake, that is…Apparently we are having some kind of flat barbeque tomorrow, I say apparently because it is Emma that is organising it and I’m not quite sure on the particulars. As long as it doesn’t rain like it did today we should have a jolly old time. Either way I’m always up for feeding people and so volunteered to make the Chocolate Lime Cheesecake from Nigella Bites, using gluten free cookies for the base. It is largely a case of bunging all the ingredients in the processor, the difficult bit is baking it in a waterbath, but not much is difficult in the kitchen when you have Tim to lift things for you. It is cooling on the bench now and smells pretty amazing. I’ll let you know tomorrow night what the general consensus is. I’ve never made a cheesecake before so it’s all a bit exciting.
Alright, it’s now past midnight and I have to brave a shopping mall tomorrow, so I need my sleep.