Neely

Eggs, bacon and tomatoes for breakfast

DH cooked while I minded the older grandsons 2 & 4. He made a dish of chicken with olives and mustard served over pasta. I really enjoyed it and so grateful to him for taking over as I was tired after little ones had gone home.

Husband’s and my basic lunch of Australian beef sausage in a piece of baguette with green tomato pickles. I am always trying different bakeries in the hope of finding the true tasting French baguette. (Made in France) It is the flour, it’s different from French flour over here but I live in hope I may one day find a bakery, of which there are many, that imports French flour to make their baguettes. (Of course ‘why would they’ )It is quite a few years since I’ve been back to France but having spent quite sometime there, the memory of true baguette stays with me. There is a particular chain of bakeries here that I had high hopes for, Laurent Bakery which has very good bread and French cakes but alas still not the flavour, texture I remember. All that said, this particular lunch bread was good, made with a sprinkle of semolina for extra crunch. I would like to be able to make bread like our AnnT but so far I haven’t been able to.

Bacon with avocado, blueberries and blackberries. . . on toast.

Some of the family came over for an informal late lunch for Mothers Day. We had pork chops and vegetables, gravy and mustard of course.

Diner was steak ,scalloped potatoes, beans and a few roasted Brussel sprouts put in the oven while potatoes were cooking.

Breakfast of ham and eggs with a bearnaise sauce.

I usually have a jar of preserved lemons in the fridge and use them sparingly most often with some sort of lamb dish perhaps chicken. I quite like the salty tang but my husband not at all so it’s a juggling act to make sure none gets on his plate.

This meal looks so delicious @Captainand is so far removed from my take out/ take away version shown below. Well what happened you ask.? I had some limes given to me so I made guacamole…. fine, tasted good. So I thought, quite frankly I’m not confident making my own Enchiladas so I’ll order in with some spicy chicken wings from a Mexican restaurant. I made a little pico de gallo to go with the guacamole and those two were the best things to eat on the plate. I didn’t like the enchilada at all . It had grilled chicken filling and a tomatiillo sauce with corn. It was gloopy and not good. I could only eat a third and I hate wasting food. The chicken wing was OK.

Breakfast this morning was upgraded canned baked beans. Added onions a little mince and more tomato paste and chilli . Egg of course.

Made a pot of pea and ham soup and had some for lunch, probably have it for dinner as well.

@liuzhou She sounds like a fun person…Not. When I lived in UK I happily switched to Marmite although visitors from AUS who stayed with me knew to bring a jar of Vegemite. Hah!

Hope you are feeling better @Kim Shook @liuzhou said Quote. “ This breakfast topic has been running for years and has always been the least active of the Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner topic trilogy. My theory is that even the most adventurous eaters tend to be most conservative at breakfast. We all tend to fall back to a handful of favourites which we repeat over and over again, perhaps due to lack of time to be more adventurous or simply a preference for familiar comforts first thing in the morning. -0-0-0–0– The familiar comfort food I fall back on is usually Vegemite on toast …after all I am an Aussie… but don’t feel it photo worthy but here it is. A more adventurous breakfast is the following mushrooms and tomatoes on toast with a dollop of avocado and sprinkled with my pomegranate seeds. Both of these breakfasts are fine by me though I do usually prefer to include an egg somehow.

Dinner continuing my Indian food craze. There was left over butter chicken and today I also made a tomato based Brinjal/Eggplant curry and a coconut milk based Saag Aloo/ Potato and Spinach curry. I’m pretty much all curried out for a while now Hah!

Breakfast this morning was a tender omelette, meaning it was barely cooked with tiniest amounts of fish sauce and soy sauce, with chilli crisp and coriander.

@liuzhou said “ . Enough chillies for ya⁈ “ Good grief, that’s a whole lot of chillies. I am still on a slight Indian fad atm having watched the brilliant Rick Stein’s India again for about the 6 th time. I love that telly programme… the music, the colours and of course, the food. The first time I watched it I bought the book and find it excellent reading with the recipes straight forward and easy to follow. The below is Murgh Makhani better known as butter chicken, the including of Fenugreek makes it special, with a poor man’s biryiani including my pomegranate seeds and juice.

Left over roast potatoes found their way into my breakfast with an egg of course.

Sunday roast fresh chicken with tarragon stuffing which is trying to escape the bird, roast potatoes, peas, carrots and a tasty gravy made by husband I think the last photo with the gravy poured on looks the tastiest to eat Without gravy With gravy

Lamb shanks with mashed potato and sweet potato. The sauce, along with various herbs includes the tiniest touch of cinnamon, which I like but not too strong.

A quick lunch of pickled herring. The best thing about this lunch is that the pomegranate is off my own baby tree… I had three this year.

Chicken Korma under night lights, with two samosas

I wanted to thank you @blue_dolphin for the times you have mentioned in reference to the meal you’ve made “The Global Pantry Cookbook”. I finally looked it up ( takes me awhile lol) and was available through Amazon. Sometimes, some books and products aren’t available here in Australia. So I got it through Kindle and it’s a terrific read as well as a recipe informer despite its little quirks. I do have most ‘global’ things that are mentioned in my pantry but we will have to differ on kimchi, maybe I’ve just had bad ones. The other book you mention Tenderheart, well I’ll explore that another time. I like reading recipes but not so good at following them, using them more as a reference to the ingredients I have on hand. Occasionally I’ll shop specifically for ingredients for a particular recipe.

Here are some dinners we’ve been having over the past few days. Below spaghetti bolognaise We had dinner one night at our son’s and his wife made this enchilada, she said it was a Jamie Oliver recipe with sweet potato and black beans in the filling. It has made me want to make my own enchiladas and I’ve been looking up recipes. Below an ordinary chicken schnitzel and 5 veg meal. The mashed sweet potato with butter was nice I made a frangipane tart with the soon to be finished for the season fresh figs

Beef Bourguignon with a glass of the same red wine used for the meat. Mashed potato and beans.

This Sunday lunch was beef curry made by husband. IF we have a sit down Sunday lunch it is usually either a curry or a roast. He added coconut milk to a Rogan Josh beef curry and it was creamy and delicious.