Neely

We been so busy back and forth working on our little holiday home that buying fresh food and cooking has been really neglected. Not having shopped for a while and forgetting about deliveries, I’ve been ’cooking’ out of fridge and pantry. Below was a combination quinoa and lentil stir fry with silver beet from the garden Below was jarred pickle herrings And below was the amusing quinoa fritters with chilli and garlic mayo I can’t say that I greatly enjoyed any of these meals… which is kind of sad.

Last of the home grown tomatoes on English crumpets. I will be looking on with envy at Northern Hemisphere home grown tomatoes in the near future I guess. We still have plenty in the shops of course… all year round but the mid winter golf balls are less than ideal.

Pork dumplings in a miso broth

We are at our little getaway (holiday) country home and had a pizza for lunch outside on the verandah with a sparkling apple juice.

Back to salads. This was ordinary old bought rotisserie chicken with stuffing.

Omelette for breakfast, perhaps a little too much soy, but I enjoyed it.

Easter Sunday lunch was the usual roast lamb but this time I chose to serve it with Greek flavours of olives and crumbled feta with fresh salad ‘leaves’. My husband dishes up the peas and makes sure we don’t have too little LOL. Mint sauce on there as well The ubiquitous Pavlova for dessert this time with raspberries, mango and passion fruit.

Hot cross buns for Easter breakfasts. I’m never sure when to serve them so we have them most days sometimes following scrambled eggs. There are choc chip and the plain ones.

@OlyveOyl and lightly pickled red onions… love these and so easy. I’m glad I’ve discovered them.

Stir fry pork for dinner for us.

This was more brunch than lunch. Salad with my much liked pomegranate seeds and croutons.

Take out Friday Dumpling soup (short soup). Chicken satay, crispy squid, Belachan eggplant. This is all from favourite Malaysian restaurant.

I just make a bechamel sauce and add a dollop of cream for smooth richness, then add about teaspoon of English mustard and a dessert spoon of Dijon all to taste. Agree Hollandaise with added Dijon would be good but I find making a bechamel easier.

Although I am late to the St Patrick’ Day celebrations, I didn’t want to miss out on a corned beef meal, so we had it 2 days late. Mustard sauce added to the dish.

Delicious scrambled eggs for breakfast made by our son while we are staying with him for a few days.

More dishes we had for lunch with our son. Edited to add… normal home cooked lunches coming up. Burrata Duck terrine Arancini Cute outdoor restaurant

Delicious lunch @blue_dolphin above. We are visiting family in another city and taking the opportunity to have a few meals in restaurants. This was lunch in a very nice place in the Southern Highlands south of Sydney. Pumpkin and coconut soup with warm whole meal rolls was delicious.

As we are visiting family in another city we had breakfast at a nearby breakfast place… this was my Bircher muesli which was very nice.

This dinner was slices of chicken breast braised in soy, ketchup manis, honey, garlic and ginger. Black rice and broccoli. I made some flat breads but over cooked them until they were crispy… I have no idea what name they could be called but they tasted OK.

I made a small eggplant and sweet potato curry while waiting for a delivery of samosas and chicken tikka.

Went out for lunch with a couple of friends. Had Calamari, I always have calamari for a “not” fancy lunch. It included pickled ginger and nori with a wasabi mayonnaise. Also had a locally brewed lager which was great. Upthread a ways I saw @BonVivant you had a Framboise beer. Where we had a country holiday home until recently… there was a boutique brewery there that had a Framboise lager which I loved. Can’t find it again around here and 4 hours is a bit far to drive for a beer. Hah!

What wonderful food you’ve enjoyed last week @weinoo … everything

Burger last night for dinner… it has beetroot within and beetroot crisps as a side. Salad only tonight as nothing would make me cook inside or stand outside at the BBQ today. Yesterday was 30’C (86’F) which is a hot day., but today and for 3 days we are getting 38’C -40C (over 100’F to 104’F ) which is stifling. Salad included all the usual suspects- chopped cucumbers, chopped tomatoes, green onion, peppers with figs, pomegranate and blue cheese We had strawberries and plums with crushed cookie for a dessert after the light salad.

This breakfast was IKEA caviar over the labneh I recently made, on toast.

Thinking similarly @OlyveOyl… we had chicken thighs braised in chicken stock with lemon juice, with onion and garlic ( no olives ). Ours was baked in the oven over lentils and black rice. Creamed silver beet (garden )as a side. There was also sprigs of thyme and dollops of labneh added with 10 minutes of cooking still to come. The labneh which I make by straining Greek yoghurt is delicious for me. Edited to add that silver beet grows like a weed here and is always in the garden.