The Master of Many Cookbooks!

Typical Tuesday night shenanigans....last night we headed down to Mum and Dad's for tea and as usual got kicked out of the kitchen pretty quickly! One thing I noticed though was that Mum was working out of about 3 differenty cookbooks and whatever she was making was gonna knock our socks off....and you know what, I was right!

There was a flurry of pots and pans and cheeses and bowls and the end result looked something like this


It consisted of a Roast Tomato on Goats Cheese, Portobello Mushrooms with Garlic, Fetta and Balsamic and Creamy Polenta...but believe you me, this does not do justice however to the meal that was served up. The goats cheese was velvety smooth, the mushrooms were roasted with garlic and topped with fetta and balsamic vinegar and served on a bed of wilted spinach and the polenta was cooked with milk and a tub of philadelphia herb and garlic cream cheese making it creamy and tasty. It was a fantastic combination of flavours and would also make a very decadent brekkie too!

Roast Tomatoes on Goats Cheese
4 Roma Tomatoes
2 tbspns Olive Oil
200g Goats Cheese

Drizzle tomatoes with oil, season with salt and pepper and roast in a medium hot oven for 10-15 mins. Serve tomatoes on a bed of crushed goats cheese. This would also be lovely served with some pita bread lightly toasted in the oven.

Portobello Mushrooms with Garlic, Fetta and Balsamic
8 x Portobello Mushrooms
2 x cloves of garlic thinly sliced
Olive Oil
Butter
1 x bag baby spinach
100g Fetta
Balsamic

Pre-heat oven to 200C and add mushrooms to a roasting dish. Drizzle with oil and top with garlic. Roast for 15-20mins
Meanwhile wilt spinach and butter in a fry pan. Spoon onto serving plates and top with mushrooms.
Sprinkle with crumbled fetta and balsamic vinegar.

Creamy Polenta
1.5 cups skim milk
2 cups water
1 cup polenta
125g Philadelphia spreadable garlic and herb

Boil milk and water to the boil on the stove and reduce heat to low.
Add polenta and stir constantly until thick.
Stir in philadelphia (you can also add 1/4 cup parmesan here if you wish) and serve.

But that's not all! If you thought the main was great, wait till you see the dessert...


That my friends is a Cream Cheese Panna Cotta....and it was freakin awesome.

You need:

300ml light cooking cream
1/4 c caster sugar
1 tbspn vanilla essence
1 block of philadelphia cheese
1 tspn gelatine dissolved in 1 tbsnpn hot water
And some Irish Cream liquer

Heat cream, sugar and vanilla over medium heat until sugar has dissolved.
Beat philadelphia until smooth, add cream and gelatine.
Add 1 tbspn of liquer into bottom of serving glasses.
Top with cream cheese mixture and refrigerate for 3-4 hrs or until set.

I prefer to mix the liquer through the mix before eating but each to their own! Would also be delicious with berry sauce, black coffee, caramel or fruit puree instead of liquer.

Fan-freakin-tastic night, good food, great company!

And just before I go, a picture of our ridiculous dessert the other night, brandy snap baskets with chocolate custard, whipped cream and strawberries...mmmmmmmm