Birthday girl

Well the birthday girl got her cake and she ate it too. I was surprised how significant turning six was,

for me rather than for M. It feels like its gettin

g serious and I don't just mean the party. She's a big girl and filled with ideas and attitudes which i tried for a couple of weeks in September to channel into party preparations and she did quite well.

She painted a donkey (outline supplied by V), helped make and paint the pinjate(sp?), wrapped the pass the parcel and iced the cake. The party planning was mostly driven by her and each morning

she would prepare me with "now you'll do such and such for the p

arty today won't you mum, or you'll buy......"

Prep parties seem to be quite important milestone and for weeks M was making lists and telling me who she was or wasn't going to invite but I put a cap on it and decided to limit it to girls from her school. I was pleasantly surprised to find them also filled with id

eas and attitudes, luckily i had a party plan!! P.S actual party cake was tri-coloured which i managed to over cook not that they cared they seem to only ever like eating the icing.

Little m thought it rocked as well!!

Homemade Mayonnaise

It was mentioned to me recently that we only cook two recipes from any one cookbook, which sounds ridiculous when i think about how many books i have but perhaps it's not far from my truth. I have been meaning to post this recipe for Mayo for some time, as it is one I always return to. It's taken from my tatty old Moosewood cookbook a wholesome whole foods delight i bought (?maybe it was a present?) sometime back in the 80's (yes the good old days) and I haven't gone near supermarket mayonnaise since. I tend to make it when eggs are plenty and with the onset of spring i am pleased to report that my girls are laying well. The three chicks we raised from the creche hatching have all turned out to be ladies (although not laying yet it looks like it will be any day now), so we have seven chickens in total. When out on my walks along the Merri Creek I pick them a bunch of greens so that when i let them out to free range they tend to by pass my vegies. I have some garden beds fenced off but none the less they still get in and their scratching around can cause enough damage to make me twitchy. So watch out ladies if you don't prove you can earn your keep.....

Mayonnaise makes 3.5 cups

1/2 cup vinegar (or part or all lemon or lime juice)

1 tsp honey

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp tamari

2 whole eggs

2 egg yolks

Beat together in a blender (eggs should be at room temp)

Gradually drizzle in while blender is still running

2.2 cups of oil (I have used extra virgin olive oil in the past but i find its flavour too strong, so i either mix it with another oil such as rice bran or just do rice bran or whatever i have avail.)

The mayonnaise will thicken as the oil is drizzled in. As soon as it thickens stop or it will thin again.

You can add pesto parsley ( I will post about this soon) or garlic to make aioli or thin it down with a little milk to cover a coleslaw.

chocolate cake

Mariana is very excited as she turns 6 at the end of the month and she asked me if i could make her a practice birthday cake. This is a simple oldy but a goody chocolate cake recipe and as you can see it satisfied the demand!

125gm butter

175gm sugar

2 tlbsp. golden syrup or honey or omit

1 egg

1 .5 cup flour

2tblsp cocoa

1 tsp baking soda

1 cup milk

1 tsp baking powder

cream butter and sugar

add egg and golden syrup and mix

sift in flour, bp and cocoa and add alternatively with baking soda mixed in with milk

line a cake tin with baking paper

bake at 180 or slightly lower if using fan oven for 1hr. keep an eye on it and it the top is cooking to fast cover with tin foil

ice with chocolate icing and serve with lashings of cream!!

Tofu Vege bake with Pomegranate molasses and prunes

This photo doesn't do this meal justice, but it was so good that i thought i better take an image and post it. I guess if your not into tofu you could replace it with chicken.

Tofu Vege bake with Pomegranate molasses and prunes

Chop pumpkin, potato, parsnip, leek, carrot in to 2cm cubes

Place in a deep enamelled cast iron pan with some olive oil and mix together

Begin cooking with lid off for 15mins

Mean while

Cut tofu block in to 2-3cm cubes place in a bowl

Add finely chop 1-2 garlic cloves

Sprinkle with Tamari and a good lathering of Pomegranate molasses

Mix and marinate for 10mins

Take cooking pan out of the oven

Add a handful of prunes, sour berries (sorry i don't know the name), pumpkin and sunflower seeds

Mix tofu and vegies together and bake with the lid off 45 – 60mins approx at 180. allow vegies to brown and mix every 20mins or so.

Chop silver beet in to pieces about 2cm

10 mins before ready remove pan from oven place silver beet on the top of the vegies and return to oven with lid on to cook through.

Serve with cous cous

Cabbage, Parsley, Ricotta Cannelloni

Once a week we get an amazing box of local and seasonal organic vegies and fruit. Its always a bit of a mystery what's in the box which makes for part of the fun. While eating seasonally makes good environmental and health sense it means you need to be creative with your cooking or it starts to get a little bit repetitive. I like to experiment and on a whim i will throw things together. The next couple of posts are recipes that i have either adapted to what's in my fridge or i have made them up. They require you to intuit quantities and timing a little as they have not been tested, let me know if you have any success or failures with them. p.s because i am trying to get the kids to eat them the flavours a simple - you could try adding chilli or anchovies to the cannelloni stuffing if you like.

Cabbage, parsley and ricotta Cannelloni

One box of Cannelloni tubes

Finely cut ¼ of a green cabbage and steam

Finely chop onion and lightly brown in olive oil

Add one finely chopped clove of garlic

In a bowl bring cabbage and onion mix together

Add ¾ cup finely chopped parsley and one egg

1- 1 ½ cups of crumbled ricotta Salt and pepper to taste

Tomato sauce

One onion finely chopped One clove or two of garlic finely chopped

Tin of tomatoes chopped 2 tblespoons of tomato paste plus tin of water or one bottle of Passata

In a pot brown onion in olive oil add garlic

Add tomatoes tins + paste or sauce

Salt and pepper and dried or fresh oregano for flavour

Cook till sauce thickens slightly say 20 mins

While sauce is cooking fill Cannelloni tubes with vege mix

Place in a heavy bottomed (cast iron) pan and cover with tomato sauce

place lid or tinfoil over the top and cook 30 -40mins till pasta tubes are soft. You may need to add a little bit of water if the sauce is drying out too much.

Over winter we have been madly planting bare rooted fruit trees; cherry, pear, apricot, and peach (oh and an avocado) were added to our existing apple, lemon, plum, nectarine, feijoa and fig. In order to make room we had to remove some Wattles that had given us afew years of their optimistic yellow early spring bloom but unfortunately they had past their best. Years ago i did a Diploma of Horticulture - Orchard Management at Massey University in NZ so it will be fun to put my knowledge to good use.

We have the cherry, apple and pear planted up against a wire framework and hope to trygrowing them as a

fan, hopefully the pruning won't prove too

challenging.

The nectarine that i have been pruning in a standard form is blossoming and due to all the rain we have had lately i am hoping for a good crop this year.

meatballs and tomato sauce

Vito cooked for us tonight a dinner of meatballs and pasta in tomato sauce. Kids loved and for that matter so did I.

.5 kilo of mince (can be beef or a combination of pork and veal)

1 tablespoon grated Parmesan cheese

1 egg

1-2 tablespoon breadcrumbs

Salt and pepper

½ small onion finely diced

Optional finely chopped parsley

Mix and massage mixture together with your hands and form into balls

Shallow fry meatballs in a heavy pan

Finely chop one medium onion and 2-3 cloves garlic and fry in olive oil.

Once the onion is translucent add 1-2 tablespoons of tomato paste and fry with onions for a couple of minutes

Add tin of chopped tomatoes and 1 cup of water

Let sauce come to the boil and simmer with meatballs for 45 – 60mins