Dinosaur Salad

We were watching Peppa Pig the other day, Sophia loves her and every time she says Peppa Pig she snorts like a pig which is hilarious – to me anyway – So Peppa’s brother George wouldn’t eat his salad which Grandpa Pig had grown in his own garden, so Grandpa Pig tore up the pieces of lettuce and made a dinosaur with it and cucumber & tomatoes.

Soph & Zachie thought it was great and tonight we had a go at it as well. I have found that a sure fire way to get the kids to eat is to get them involved in making the food. Tonight was no different. Zachie had grazed all day so wolfed down this salad followed by a bowl of weetbix, another great alternative to dinner when you know if they don’t eat something they’ll be up through the night!

Now I do have to confess that I have no issue at all with getting either of our kids to eat salad, they love it and would quite possibly eat only salad, some nights it’s a fight for who gets the most.

My dear friend gave me her wonderful garden salad recipe and it’s a staple in our house even through winter, I love salad in preference to vegies any day as does Hubby, which is probably where the kids get it from as well.

If you struggle to get your kids to eat salads or vegetables or just want to make it a bit more fun, this could be the way… stay tuned for a Semi Trailer styled salad soon.

Dee’s delicious Salad

You will need for 2 adults & 2 kids

1 tomato diced

1 decent sized Lebanese cucumber peeled, forked & quartered

4-6 coz lettuce leaves, rinsed and chopped

100gms of danish fetta, crumbled

dash of balsamic vinegar

Combine the ingredients in a salad bowl, mix well and serve. We do also add avocado &/or olives on occasion too.

Preserved Lemons

I can’t believe how long it’s been since I have posted a recipe and I am so sorry about that, we’ve moved house so things have been insanely busy. I finally feel as though I have a small amount of time to myself, but that is more often that not spent thinking about all the work I have to do for work, family and sorting out all our stuff! That’s the life of a Mum I guess.

Anyway all is good in our world and spring is almost on our doorstep. Not withstanding another winter blast for us Melburnians! That means Magnolia’s are flowing, the blossoms are blooming and Lemons are bountiful. What will you do with all those lemons? Preserve them of course! They are an essential ingredient to all Moroccan food and add a certain something which I don’t think can be replicated by anything else.

You will need

A big glass jar, preferably one with one of those clip lids and a rubber ring to seal, but a metal or glass lid will work as well.

As many thick skinned lemons as you can lay your hands on.

Salt & Water.

What to do… Wash the lemons and remove the storks. Slice them into quarters, but not all the way through, you need to leave them intact although that said if you need to slice them all the way in half so they’re packed more tightly into the jar then go for it.

Pack them tightly into the jar and I mean TIGHT, squash them down really well, you need to make sure that when you add the water they don’t rise up and become uncovered by the water. If you have any of those plastic lids that covers a baby’s bottle then you can use them to keep the lemons submerged.

Once the lemons are in place add salt and enough water to cover. As a rough guide I would add 3/4 to 1 cup of salt to a jar that would hold about 2 litres of water if it was empty. Seal the jar and stick in a dark cupboard for at least a month or two.

You can also pack them into smaller jars and use them for Christmas presents, the only thing you need to be aware of is to ensure the lemons are submerged under water so they don’t come in contact with any metal surfaces in the lid.

You don’t despite what anyone else tells you need to add bay leaves, pepper corns etc you can if you like but my Moroccan would have a fit

When it comes time to use them again no need to remove the flesh unless you were using the rind in a salad, just make sure you rinse them and don’t be alarmed if there is a funny jelly like substance that rinses away, it’s normal. Also on occasion you do get a layer of mould on the lemons, I think this happens for a few reasons, firstly the jar isn’t sterile and the lemons aren’t completely submerged. The lemons at the bottom should be okay to use.

THE best Banana Loaf Recipe!

Yes I am aware that’s puffery but I have tried banana loaf/bread in lots of places and this one rocks it big time, it’s an oldie & a goodie and that’s why I think it’s so good, the old recipes are tried and true. Made by all the wonderful home cooks our world is made up of!

This recipe comes from a book of Mum’s which I think she got either from her mum (my Grandma) or from their local church, it’s the Hamilton Lutheran Women’s association and I hope you enjoy it as much as we do.

This recipe will make 2 loaves.

You will need:

125g butter

2 cups of sugar

4 eggs

3 cups of plain flour

6 bananas, mashed

3 1/2 tsp bicarb soda

Grease & line 2 loaf tins and preheat your oven to 180 degrees celsius. Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, add the eggs beating after each addition and then add the bananas & flour, mix well until combined and divide between the two tins. Bake for 1 hour or until golden and cooked.

This is wonderful served cold and buttered. I have never toasted it, but I love to hear how it goes if you do.

Coats the back of a spoon

Surely you have heard of this… but what does it actually mean? Exactly what it says, the batter, mixture, custard etc should coat the back of a spoon, just like this, simple easy plain as day. Here’s to custard lovers everywhere, this one is for you!

 

Conversions

We are metric, there I said it, in Australia we’re ahead of the pack in more ways than one, we drive on the Right (Correct) side of the road, things are in celcius, metres, centimetres, kilometres, grams & kilos and they have been since 1966 – there was a song about it too. Even though we now have a generation of people myself included who have only ever been taught the metric system yet people still refer to things in feet & inches, pounds & ounces.

This usually only happens when refering to someones height or the weight of a baby, but that said it still seems strange – no so strange when translating recipes from your Grandmother or even your mother. We’ve come across a few recipes that are from a time where the oven would have either been wood or coal fired or a slowcombustion which is a bit like an arga I think, I think I do also remember my Grandma’s slow combustion stove, but I can’t be sure… it was a long time ago.

In Morocco our “Oven” is antiquated at best and it’s a wonder things turn out as well as they do, I have practice though on our oven which has no temperature gauge which is a good way to learn how to cook and how to tell when things are done. They were talking about this on Masterchef the other night and how you tell when things are cooked, the Chefs at school used to say it’s cooked when it’s cooked without giving a time frame and it used to frustrate me no end.

But it’s true… it’s cooked when it’s cooked… you can tell by the smell of a cake, the feel of a streak, the look and feel of a roast & the colour on biscuits (cookies). Remember bread sounds hollow when it’s cooked and you tap the bottom.

If you put your thumb & forefinger together and feel the meat on your thumb that feeling or resistance is the same as when you push the meat of a steak for Bleu, Thumb & middle finger is rare, thumb & ring is medium & thumb & little finger is well done – as a rule of thumb

So here is a bit of a list – from a cookbook we’ve had for over 50 years… all you need to remember is brown sugar is usually packed and the recipe would indicate whether it’s lightly or tightly packed.

Oh and here in Australia 1 cup equals 250 Mls, it takes 4 cups to make a litre (1000mls) a teaspoon is 5 mls, a tablespoon is 20mls.

A good tip I heard once was to place a sheet of baking paper in your oven and leave it there for a while, you will be able to see where the hot spots in your oven are. I hope this helps with your baking.

Home delivery Fruit & Vegies

A few weeks ago we had lunch with a friend when her box of fruit & vegies were delivered to her door, looking at what was available all freshly picked and packed got me thinking… With 2 small children, one of whom has taken to questioning every purchase we make at the supermarket and constantly saying we need this, we need that has started to wear a bit thin with me, add to that working part time as well and feeling a little like there are not enough hours in the day I decided that I’d give the home delivery option a go.

I love going to the market and hand selecting our fruit and veg and I think I will still do that but this option gives us more than enough fruit & veg for the week, it’s seasonal which is fantastic, it’s organic – even better and compared to organic prices at the market it’s very reasonably priced. It will also ensure that we actually only buy what we will use for the week rather than having too many of something or another and things going off in the fridge before we can use them.

I have noticed that even though it’s only 2 days a week that our children are in child care they don’t seem to be eating as much as what they would have done if they were at home all week, that an by the time my working week finishes it’s Thursday which is normally the day I head to the Preston Market for a shop.

Anyway, after our box of goodies was delivered yesterday I made spaghetti bolognaise with organic carrots, celery & onions. Zachie ate a pear & an orange both of which he said were Delicious Mummy! So I do think I am on a winner, I just need to remember to let them know – no broccoli or cabbage, that’s the great thing about this service you can say I don’t want Chinese greens, cabbage, pumpkin, sweet potato, kale, chard, silverbeet etc (all of the things we aren’t really fans of or wouldn’t use in day to day cooking.)

I will still head to the market today to buy cucumbers, tomatoes, fresh bread etc but give or take a few items (which you could add to your order) we’re set for the week! Happy days people!

You can check out Victoria Organic Delivery here if you live in Melbourne or even Victoria as they deliver it seems to most places.

We got 6 Apples, 5 Bananas, 3 Zucchini, 5 large Potatoes, 4 Pears, 3 Onions, 1/2 a bunch of celery, 3 heads of broccoli, 1/2 a cabbage, 6 mandarins, 4 oranges, a bag of gourmet lettuce, 3 kiwi fruits & 2 avocados.

Now all I have to do is work out what to do with the cabbage??

Farmers Markets

It’s very cold and wintery here in Melbourne at the moment and it’s not about to warm up any time soon with Winter starting officially next week. That said after yesterdays 11 degrees today it was slightly warmer and a little bit of sunshine shone through in the morning so we headed off to a farmers market at one of the local primary schools. Suprisingly I haven’t been to one for a while as really with the Preston Market just down the road it hasn’t really seemed necessary.

Well I have to say it was a wonderful foodie experience, with lots of different suppliers, an organic veggie stall, free range eggs, apples, chutney’s, DELICIOUS tartlets, bread, hot coffee, sausages, pides, face painting, craft stall and being held at the local school meant there was somewhere for the kids to play and hang out safely.

Did you know they were originally purple?

Now all I have to do is work out what to do with my rainbow of veggies! I’d highly recommend checking out your local farmers market when there is next one on in your area, oh and naturally everything is seasonal! Love it!

Oh and we had this for Lunch with some yummy West African dip thingy made from Peanuts, coriander, paprika, garlic and a few other things – all of which we loved.

We had the one on the left 4 cheeses & chives.

P.S. I am really sorry that I haven’t posted anything for ages, I think it’s been a case of writers block combined with a mad rush at work and a pinch of lack of motivation/inspiration – this market certainly put paid to that! xx Kate