[What do you think of skate?]

I cooked skate for the first time last week and I was horribly disappointed. The flavour was so strong and the texture of the fish I could only describe as stringy.. definately not my cup of tea at all. Maybe my recipe or preparation was at fault, or maybe that is just the way it is.

I am not prepared to give up on it entirely though, so if anyone can convince me to try it again I am all ears.

[Fresh herbs]

Herbs are something I would never be without in my kitchen. I have tons of herbs in my garden that are constantly being picked.

Some of my fav uses for herbs

Red potatos oven roasted with a good scattering of rosemary needles and olive oil, a few roughly chopped cloves of garlic and a sprinkle of sea salt. They are just wonderful!

Thyme in mushroom soup or over slow roasted pumpkin slices.

Thyme cooked with butter, shallots and garlic for a wonderful homemade bread topping.

Rosemary in red onion jam

chives in salads and butters.

Lemon verbena in salads, with fish and chicken

Sage butter with chicken

Majoram with lamb shanks braised with beer .. superb

Majoram leaves scattered through home baked bread

candied herb flowers to decorate cakes

Valarian makes a fabulous relaxing tea, as do peppermint and camomile.

young dandelion leaves in salads add a terrific bite

mint in tabouleh and youghurt and garlic dressings for middle eastern foods.

I could go on and on.... herbs have so many uses.. I am grateful to have them in my kitchen and to have discovered early how versatile they are.

Love em!! :)

[Mutton!]

Mutton is eaten a lot here in New Zealand. A nice leg of mutton roasted with potatos, Kumara, crown pumpkin and parsnips is a very traditional sunday dinner here.

Naming convention for sheep meat goes like this. Lamb = 1 year or less. Hogget = one to two years old. Mutton older than 2 years.

Mutton on the whole tends to be a little stronger in flavour than lamb and the meat is much more tender. A lovely leg of mutton will just literally fall off the bone.

It is also often cured to make mutton ham which is excellent and surprisingly it is not too different from traditional ham.

It is most suited to stewing braising and roasting as the favoured cooking methods.

A lovely juicy piece of mutton .. great stuff :)

[Raising food-savy children]

I have 3 children, who all have various likes and dislikes.

The oldest was VERY picky as a small child, the middle one eats anything except pumpkin and tomato and has been the same since he started solids ( he's 12 now ) the youngest who is only 2 seems to survive on a diet of mostly bread, cheese and yoghurt at the moment.

The oldest child - who is now 14 despite the fact that she would not eat anything when she was little , will now eat most things, she is taller than her mother ( me ) and is very sporting.

We do not take any of the kids to Pizza Hut, McDs KFC or anything like that. If others want to take them that is ok, but we don't buy them meals there ourselves.

But what we do instead is give the two older children a dinner out once a month of their choosing. We give them a price range ( depending on the budget that month ) and they take turns at picking where we are going to eat. They are not allowed to choose the same place twice in a year. So that way we all get to eat out somewhere different eating good ( hopefully ) food and trying out different places.

We have eaten Thai, Japanese, Korean and Indian foods recently.

But having said all that .. I asked them what they wanted for dinner the other night.. giving them free rein! Anything they wanted I would cook them. Chocolate cake, Chicken Tikka, poached salmon.. the sky was the limit..

You know what's coming don't you

They wanted heinz baked beans with little sausages in it... from the can!!

So.. You can help your kids develop a wider palate.. but they are still going to choose the hamburger over the fillet steak any day :)