On Monday night OH cooked a mouth watering BBQ Chicken Pizza, after several attempts he is now the king of home made pizza dough, it comes out light and airy, slightly doughy in the middle yet crispy on the outisde and honestly there is nothing better then home made pizza with fresh capsicum and juicy pineapple, caramelised onions and mushrooms, juicy tomatoes and chicken all on a bed of bbq sauce...mmmmm is it wrong to be craving pizza at 8:30am?? We have even come to an agreement now, on my half I have serious willpower with the cheese, OH on the other hand will use a whole pkt of grated cheese on his side and whilst my head is screaming CALORIES and EVIL every other inch of me watches him take a bite of the cheesy goodness and just salivates. This photo is of my half...imagine that cheese multiplied by ohhh 10 and you have OH's side!
Wednesday night I wanted to try a recipe I had for Sweet and Sour Fish Parcels. You make a simple sweet and sour sauce on the stove top with tomato sauce, vinegar, sugar and cornflour, then you add in some capsicum, pineapple and carrot and let it all boil till the sauce is thick and the vegies are soft. Then you put your fish fillet (any white fish) on some baking paper which is on some foil, top it with sauce and vegies and wrap it all up in a neat lil parcel. Bung it in the oven for awhile and when you come back (this is the part I was excited about) you open this lil parcel and the smell of the sweet and sour just invades your senses and I don't know I think I just like the idea of opening the foil and seeing the transformation thats taken place, from a cold bit of raw fish covered in some sauce you get these gorgeous bits of tender fish infused with flavour. And I served it with a very generous serving (OH's eyes nearly fell out of his head...) of boiled cauliflower and brocolli all smushed together seasoned with a lil bit of salt and pepper...superb! It is only in the last 12 months I have started eating seafood and whilst I'm still a bit wary of some things, I am getting the hang of it and slowly incorporating more of it into my cooking and our meals.
Last night was another learning curve. I had a recipe for lamb and roast vegetable spaghetti which I was keen to try as it had only a little meat and lots of delicious sounding roast vegies in it. But the recipe said to add Allspice to the mince when it was cooking and I was hesitant as I have only ever used it in my Hot Cross Buns! I know I know, I have so much to learn....anyway, last night I thought I would give it a go, I diced a red onion, 2 zucchini, 1 capsicum and 2 sticks of celery, drizzled them with oil and salt and pepper and set them in the oven to roast for 15mins. Tick tock tick tock......then I added some halved cherry tomatoes and put them back in for another 15 mins....meanwhile I put some spaghetti on to cook and threw the mince in the fry pan with some sliced button mushies. Now came the moment of truth, the mince was cooked and apparently screaming for some spices, so I added a sprinkle of allspice and a tspn of crushed garlic and cooked it up for a bit longer. (May I also add now that I was slightly concerned that as this pasta had no 'sauce' as such it would be a bit dry / lacking in flavour) How wrong was I! I had a taste test of the mince mixture and it knocked my socks off, the flavours had infused together to create pure magic. And the roast vegies were just brilliant, so I learnt two things a) pasta does not necessarily need sauce and b) Allspice + lamb mince is freakin spectacular! The final result looked something like this and I am already hanging out for the leftovers tonight!
Plus there have been several cupcake appearances this week such as these Hawthorn (AFL) inspired ones - I think they could also be a good bumblebee if they had lil chocolate wings!
And these crushed Ferrero Rocher ones:
My home kitchen idea died a spectacular death this week too. I had decided on calling myself Miss Muffet's Kitchen because my parents always called me Muffet growing up. I had done some posters, I had done price lists, menus, had a lil folder with all my recipes and ideas in it. Then I rang the local council and they told me that even for cooking for charity like I am with the RSPCA cupcakes at the moment, I should have a seperate commercial kitchen in my home to my every day one....and that would be the case if I wanted to run the business from my home too. I was shattered to put it nicely. Went home and laid on the couch with a tub of ice cream and refused to do business with the universe anymore.But luckily OH lured me outside with Allens lollies and got me to kick a soccer ball for awhile to make me feel better. But anyway, I will figure something out I'm sure. That will teach me for not checking the regulations before I did all the work! Stupid thing is, if I lived in a different suburb under a different council, I wouldn't have any trouble at all. Stupid world.
Ok people, that's me updated!
Happy Friday!!
Em x
Wow you have the most interesting food ideas on your blog Emily!!!!
ReplyDeleteAnd wow those cupcakes have me drooling... I think I could devour those ferrero ones all by myself... haha!
xxx