Neely

Pork fillet topped with grainy mustard, a typical salad this time with sorrel leaves which I have growing. I like sorrel for its bitterness and that it looks interesting. The rice was a sort of pilaf.

Today on account of it being St Patrick’s Day, I made traditional Irish Stew. cccc

Love Sunday roast and when the temperature took a dip to about 17’C I was happy to cook us roast chicken. Served the chicken with roast pumpkin, stuffing, roast potatoes and a mixture of chopped onions and mushrooms … there was gravy just not on the plate yet. No greens and I’m not sure why I didn’t cook peas as there are some in the freezer … just forgot.

I love the shape of those bowls @Ann_T. What a delicious spoonful that looks. Breakfast outside in the garden this morning was fried egg plus speck on rye sourdough toast.

This dinner was an improvement on the previous. Crumbed chicken with a salad that included fresh basil and peas

DH has been cooking again. This time a sort of chicken ’ragu’ to have with pappadelle. I love this pasta, so silky. Alas I do not like the way DH cuts and cooks this chicken fillet. Being fillet it doesn’t take long to cook yet it is dry but then the onions are not meltingly tender. Maybe I’m getting fussy in my old age but I could hardly eat this and did the old push around the plate.

Dinners the previous 2 nights saw us having a late lunch / early dinner of a large bowl of dumplings in pork bone broth. The other dinner was stir fry vegetables and rice with a fried, crumbed pork fillet and which I now understand is being called a tonkatsu

Hope it’s OK to show location photos …. It was so nice and a beautiful day with a fab view of turquoise water, that I thought I would show you that as well as the food we had for lunch. This hotel is situated on the bay - Port Phillip Bay where Melbourne is located. Below - view from the lower verandah Below I had the Moules frites. There is a mussel farm nearby so food miles about 2 away. I couldn’t eat the second chunk of sourdough bread because I could eat all the delicious chips/frites! Below- My friend had the seafood pasta

Lamb Ragu two ways over two nights. First night, with sweet potato. Tonight the remaining sauce over pappadelle. I liked this way best. K

Sunday evening dinner was Duck Confit with balsamic braised cabbage and an orange salad . It was very good. The duck was a bought package of the confit duck legs from a local producer and they are good value and very easy to do … tasty as well. The sauce was in the package with the legs, and I added fresh orange juice.

Very easy dinner that tasted good. Crispy skin salmon with beans, onion, spinach, tomatoes and a sprig of thyme. We used to eat a lot more salmon but went off it. It was good to have it again the other night for dinner.

Take out/ away rich butter chicken from the freezer from a previous meal, plus I made a yeast Nan type bread. Served with pickled cucumber, chutney, rice and yoghurt.

Went to a restaurant for lunch. I had Ceviche which was delicious. You can see my grandson’s fingers making a grab for my bowl. I managed to divert him, save the bowl and take the photo so was quite pleased.

I haven’t posted many breakfasts mainly because my homegrown tomatoes did very badly this year. I’m not sure if it was weather or soil but disappointing. Breakfast this morning was bought tomato on toast.

Mushroom risotto using a box of mushroom stock.

I saw a traditional moussaka recipe demonstrated on a TV program and thought I’d try to cook one similar. It didn’t quite turn out as I intended as the cheesy creamy sauce was still pretty runny although set in some places ( eggs in the sauce/custard ) and I layered in the eggplant as suggested instead of just chopping it in with the lamb as I usually do, but it all fell apart as I was serving instead of keeping its nice layers. It tasted fine but not the “Traditional Greek“ serving of puffy topped, layered moussaka I was intending to serve.

I have a bounty of red peppers atm which is good. I am one of the “doesn’t like green peppers” people. Below. Stuffed red pepper, baked potato and salad Made a batch of ratatouille

One of our typical breakfasts… egg, speck and lightly cooked tomato. Basil garnish from the garden. One slice of toast as usual.?

@Ann_T Quote… ‘Canned peas are a must for hot chicken sandwiches, frozen peas are a must with roast beef dinner, with mashed potatoes and Yorkshirepuddings.’ Absolutely agree. Dinners have been all over the place here. I had to lend my car to son’s wife so didn’t do any large shopping for a week. Then I shopped big time and bought steak and marinara mix plus other goodies like figs and yummy Brie for desserts. Steak frites with salad. Butter was the steaks only accompaniment meaning no sauce. The steak was what we call a Scotch fillet. Below…Seafood risotto, another recipe I came across in Rick Steins Venice to Istanbul series. Yes I’ve cooked risotto like this before but this time doing it his authentic way with a touch of all spice and cinnamon it turned out very good. Red peppers were $1.00 a kilo at the market so we’ll be having them for a while. !!! Below stuffed red pepper with a lamb chop and tabbouleh with fresh mint and parsley from the garden.

Hot grapes with chicken and fennel, a small rocket salad on the side. Crusty bread provided the carbs to soak up the juices.

Hi @Acelestialobject Sorry …. I don’t use a formal recipe but have made these for many many years and here’s what I usually do or thereabouts. Place 1 and half cups of plain flour in a bowl, pinch of salt, 2 eggs and enough milk to make a mixture about the consistency of double cream. This means I start with less milk and add as I go mixing by hand with a fork. I use a small cast iron pan which I heat to very hot, add a teaspoon of melted butter and oil and then pour in a soup ladle of the pancake/crepe mixture and swirl it around till the bottom of the pan is covered. Leave for a couple of minutes till small bubbles form on the top, flip it over with a spatula and cook for a further minute. Remove and do it again. I think the difference between these and puffy pancakes is that the mixture is more liquid and NO baking powder so they don’t rise and no sugar. I would call these English pancakes. French pancakes or crepes have an even thinner liquid mixture to get an even finer pancake. Hope this has been helpful.

Saturday morning breakfast was avocado on toast with hard boiled egg and pomegranate seeds. Slice of tasty sourdough bread plus OJ.

Ordinary chicken schnitzel with nuked new potatoes and coleslaw salad. Pomegranate seeds added.

Sunday roast but not the full on kind. Flattened Roast chicken with spices, sprinkled chilli flakes… I’m trying to replicate the chicken we can buy at a nearby shop. Also roast pumpkin, which we have hot or later cold with a salad. I seem to have a lot of roast pumpkin around at the moment as my little 11 month old grandson loves it either warm or cold ( I freeze some) I guess it’s the natural sweetness.

I like it when we have no bread in the house and therefore no toast for breakfast which means I have to make pancakes. Grated cheese and avocado pancakes.