Day 9

Today is Wednesday. After porridge for brecky, Dave's esky was packed and he headed for the Men's Shed.

I went down the street and bought a fresh loaf of country grain loaf and had sandwiches for lunch. Avocado, brie and Kashmir chutney.

This afternoon I made a batch of Apricot Coconut Cookies, as I needed to take a plate to a meeting this evening.

For the cookies...

3 eggs

1 cup caster sugar

60g butter

1Tblsp grated lemon rind

1 Tblsp lemon juice

1/2 cup chopped dried apricots

2 cups rolled oats

1/4 cup SR flour

1 cup coconut

Beat eggs, sugar, butter, lemon rind and juice until light and fluffy. Fold in apricots, rolled oats, flour and coconut. Drop teaspoonsful onto tray and cook for 12-15 mins at 180C.

Cool on trays a couple of minutes, then put on wire rack.

DINNER: Pork steaks with garlic seasoning cooked on the Weber Baby Q, with mashed potatoes, butternut pumpkin (from our garden) and thin beans ( frozen from Aldi).

Day 8

We're back to porridge with sultanas for brecky.
Today is Tuesday and the first day back this term for Mainly Music. Today I'm making savoury muffins to take with me. I used the same muffin recipe as the other day, but added leeks and grated cheese instead of olives.
When I go to Mainly Music, Dave usually gets his own lunch which is often left-overs and toast.

DINNNER: Jill and her boys called around so stayed for tea. I had mince out ready to make something for tea, so decided to make a meat and vege bolognaise. I just cooked the meat and added fried onion and garlic, carrot, leeks, corn,spinach, pasta sauce salt and pepper and mixed herbs. It was served with fettucine and grated cheese on top.

Day 7

It's Monday morning, and we've had Weet Bix for brecky the same as yesterday.

After cleaning up and packing the car, we start for home.


We have a favourite bakery at Deepwater, where we often stop for lunch. I rang ahead to get some pies put aside for us. We had a beef and potato pie, a beef steak tomato and onion, a plain pie, a pineapple tart, and a pull-apart for later.



DINNER: Having just driven home, dinner was a quick
and easy one.
We had crumbed fish pieces that just had to be baked
in a hot oven, with tomato, avocado, sour cream and
some of the pull-apart we bought at the bakery on the way home.

Day 6

BRECKY: This morning we had Weet Bix with bananas, strawberries, yoghurt, soy milk and honey.

LUNCH: Curried Sausage Pie

I had some left-over BBQd sausages in the freezer,

so decided to make a pie. I always have frozen pastry

in the freezer, which is very handy.

Fry onion, garlic chopped carrot. Add flour and curry powder, salt and pepper, stir a couple of minutes, add water, cook until thick...add frozen peas and corn.

Line pie dish with pastry. Spoon filling in. Brush with egg and sprinkle with thyme. Bake in hot oven until golden,

only about 15 mins.

Serve with tomatoes, avocado and chilli jam.

DINNER: was UFO ( unidentified frozen object) from freezer.

It was a meat and veg pasta dish.

I heated it up in a saucepan and served it on toast with grated cheese on top.

We accompanied it with a bottle of Pinot Noir.

Day 5

Today is Saturday. After going to garage sales we decided to go to Wally for a couple of days.
Often for lunch on the way to Wally, we go to Hanks bakery and get chicken, avocado and cranberry toasted Turkish breads.

For dinner we just had left-over chicken/vegetable lasagne from yesterday.

Day 4

LUNCH: Lunch with Nigel and Pam was a simple dish of tomato, onion, cheese and bacon melts on country grain bread, accompanied by a pot of coffee.

AFTERNOON TEA: Made 6 cup slice recipe. This recipe came from a recipe book given to me by my mother-in-law several years a go. I have used it heaps. You can vary the recipe just by changing a couple of the ingredients. Today the ingredients used were...
1 cup SR flour

1 cup sugar

1 cup sultanas

1 cup coconut

1 cup (soy) milk

2 Tblsp cocoa

1/2 cup chopped crystalised ginger

Mix all ingredients, pour into slice tin and bake about 30 mins @ 180C.

Ice with chocolate/lemon icing.

DINNER: Chicken and vegetable lasagne

Fry onions, garlic and sliced chicken pieces. Add can of tomatoes, salt and pepper.

Make white sauce...melt butter, add plain flour, saltand pepper and cook a couple of mins. Add milk....cook until thickened.( I do the sauce in the microwave, it's quicker, less mess. Just whisk every couple of mins.)

Chop any other vegetables, eg carrots, broccoli, corn, mushrooms.

Make layers of chicken mix, veges, lasagne sheets and white sauce. Finish with layer of lasagne with white sauce on top. Sprinkle with cheese. Bake in oven at 180C until cooked through and golden on top...about an hour.

Day 3

For lunch today we had salad of leftover cold lamb, frittata, lettuce, olives, cucumber and tomato with a Balsamic vinegar and olive oil dressing.

DINNER: Nigel and Pam were here for tea, so after nibblies and a couple of beers, we had Chicken Boscaola with penne and salad:

Chicken breasts, cubed

Bacon pieces

Onion

Garlic

Cream

Salt, pepper, chilli powder

Shallots

Fry the onions, garlic bacon and chicken pieces.

Add the cream, salt, pepper, shallots and chilli powder.

Serve with Salad...lettuce, tomato, fetta cheese, olives and Balsamic and olive oli dressing.

Dinner was accompanied by a bottle of Tulloch 2007 Verdelho.

Day 2

Today is Wednesday, so Dave's esky is packed and he's off to the Men's Shed. I'm having leftovers of frittata, cold lamb slices and avocado.

DINNER: Tonight we had crumbed whiting fillets

with baked potato chips and pumpkin, served

with slices of tomato and garnished with parsley.

Day 1

I recently started to take notice of just how many different things I was cooking, so I decided to start this record of everything I cooked for a year. It was originally just something I wanted to do for myself. I started writing stuff in an exercise book each day, and taking photos of most of the finished product. Then I thought I'd put it into a blog...So here goes...

BRECKY: During Winter we usually have porridge for breakfast. We rather like it with sultanas in it lately, with brown sugar, soy milk and cream on top. I used to cook it a bowl at a time in the microwave, but now find it's yummier and pretty fast to cook on the stove. The important thing is to remember to put a bit of salt in when you cook it.
For the two of us I use: 1 cup oats, 3 cups water, big pinch salt, sultanas.

CHILLI JAM: A friend had given us some chillies, and we had some apples left over from our trip to Tassie recently, so I decided to make Apple and Chilli Jam.

Ingredients..Chillies- seeded, apples-peeled and chopped, white vinegar, white sugar, paprika,chilli powder, and garlic.

Method.. 1 cup each of white sugar and white vinegar to every 500g fruit.

Place all ingredients in large pan and cook until soft.

Blend with stick blender.

Cook a further 20 mins or so until jam consistency.

Bottle while hot.

Great with cream cheese, in sandwiches, with cooked meats.

LUNCH: A friend called around at about lunchtime, so I decided to make savoury muffins. They're quick and easy to make, and use ingredients that are always available.

300g SR flour

75g plain flour

salt

35g parmesan, grated

chopped olives

125g melted butter

Rosemary, freshly chopped or dried

2 eggs 250ml soy milk

Mix all ingredients till just combined.

Spoon into muffin tins

Bake at 210C for about 20min

DINNER: Frittata

2 potatoes

Piece of pumpkin, peeled and cubed

1 onion

Few florettes of broccoli

1/2 cup frozen beans

few small spinach leaves, chopped roughly

Cook potatoes and pumpkin until just tender. Put all other veges in steamer on top. Mix together 6 eggs, 200ml cream, salt and pepper. Pour over drained veges that have been placed in a casserole dish. Slice tomato and arrange on top. Sprinkle with grated cheese. Bake at 190C until golden...about 45 mins.

Pastry sticks...cut sheet of puff pastry into strips, brush with egg and sprinkle with parmesan. Bake about 20mins. Serve with frittata.

Frittata was garnished with apple and chilli jam, fresh parsley and coriander, and enjoyed with a cleanskin bottle of Chardonnay.