Wednesday, February 25, 2009

DD cooks
















Tonight, dear daughter (DD) cooked potato omelette from leftover roast potatoes, broccoli, eggs and basil (with some guidance from me). Cooked on low heat on the stovetop, then finished off under the griller with cheese sprinkled on top in the last moments. She insisted that all the ingredients should be in little bowls before starting to cook, 'just like Jamie Oliver and Nigella'. I think I've found my new food stylist... didn't she arrange those vegies beautifully?

Saturday, February 21, 2009

Butterflied leg of lamb

I've always wanted to try the recipe for butterflied leg of lamb from the cookbook which came with my Weber gas BBQ. We had 12 for dinner tonight, so why not experiment?! It turned out well, even with the gas running out halfway through cooking and dear husband (DH) making a quick trip to get another gas bottle.

I bought a leg of lamb from the butcher, who seemed crestfallen when I didn't want to try one of his own marinades. Overcoming his disappointment he chose a leg of lamb, cut out the bone and flattened it so that the meat was a 5 cm thick rectangle, about 40 cm by 20 cm. At home I marinated the meat in 1/2 c red wine, 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, 3 crushed garlic cloves, 1 teaspoon cumin, 1 tablespoon chopped rosemary and the juice of 1/2 lemon.

The meat was then cooked using the 'indirect' method. The BBQ is preheated on high for 10 minutes, and the lamb is seared (skin side up) for 3 minutes. Then the burner under the lamb is turned off, and the side burners are turned down to medium, and then the lamb cooks (without turning) for 35 to 45 minutes with the lid down.

The result is simply delicious, sliced thinly and served with roast potatoes. I also made my current favourite salad: grilled eggplant and capsicum, tossed with a balsamic vinaigrette and topped with bocconcini and basil. To cut the richness I often serve this salad on top of greens -- tonight, baby beet greens.













Smoothie after school






After-school smoothie with thumbs-up from DS (dear son), DD (dear daughter), and DSF (dear son's friend). Yogurt, bananas, frozen raspberries, ice cream and a titch of milk whizzed in the MagiMix.




My new Dutch scraper-outer-thingie (een flessenlikker! no, really!) is handy for scraping out the last precious bits of yogurt... or pesto... or jam. Thank you, Linda!

Thursday, February 19, 2009

One year later

One year later, and my resolutions remain on my blog and on my file cabinet... but without any blog entries in between!
New motivation has appeared: my childrens' school has been funded to be the demonstration school for the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Program. I return with a renewed zest for food, for blogging, for community.
And let's hope motivation magically appears to start exercising again as well.