Millet with stir-fried tofu

I made millet for the first time today. I liked it... the kids ate it... DH only tolerated it. As instructed by The Ultimate Rice Cooker Cookbook, I toasted it for 4 minutes in a dry frying pan on medium-high heat, which made it smell much nicer, like buttered popcorn. Then they suggested to plunge the hot grain in cold water and drain (easier said than done, with such tiny grains). It was cooked with 1 3/4 cups liquid for each 1 cup in the rice cooker. It was a nutty cross between couscous and bulgur wheat. I served stir-fried tofu and vegies on top.

Fruit snack before bed

DH instigated the routine of a bedtime snack of fruit during stories. Tonight it's a bit more fancy than the usual apple or orange... they also have watermelon and some delicious purple grapes. A workmate of his just made 500 liters of wine with a crop of these grapes!

New wall hangings

Can you tell I am sick of cooking? I framed these prints today. Fauxcouture will recognise the prints we bought in Hong Kong eight years ago. My parents gave the kids Chinese calligraphy of their names which I will hang in their room.

My living room today

It was such a lovely sunny today and my living room seemed the perfect place to be. We have both extensions in our dining table because we had 8 adults around it for dinner last night... it's such a pleasure to have a large dining table! It is the table Peter's family owned when he was a child. I bought the crocheted table cloth at a school fete for $10, and it fits the table perfectly. It reminds me of the tablecloth we had at my Grandma's farm.

Yass graveyard

Rice salad

Sigh, almost finished with all my cooking today (baked beans or fried eggs for dinner tonight, for sure!). I needed a salad which I could make today and be good for dinner tomorrow night, after we're gone all day poking around Yass. So I made 2 rice-cooker-cups of brown rice in the rice cooker, and mixed with frozen peas & corn and briefly blanched green beans and carrots (it occurred to me later that next time I should simply put the green beans and carrots in the steamer tray while the rice cooks). Then I tossed with Paul Newman Caeser dressing. This salad tastes better the longer it's in the fridge... the rice absorbs the dressing. At the last minute I'll probably garnish with some fresh tomatoes.

Hummingbird cake

Auntie Jocelyn requested a cake for our picnic tomorrow in Yass, where we're going to look at her parents' graves and the house they grew up in. I chose a hummingbird cake from a recent issue of delicious (check out the great foodie travel guides at the bottom of the home page). I realised as I was making it that it was actually my mother's recipe for carrot cake! My mother gave me my most treasured kitchen appliance, the KitchenAid mixer pictured. (Hmmm on second thought perhaps I like my dishwasher a tiny bit more.)

3 eggs
1 cup oil
1 cup (160g) brown sugar
1 1/2 cups (225g) self-raising flour, sifted
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
250g grated carrots
3/4 cup (90g) walnuts
440 g crushed pineapple, drained

Preheat oven to 180C=350F. Grease and line base of 23-24 cm springform pan.

Beat eggs, oil and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Mix flour, soda, and cinnamon until just mixed, then gently combine with carrots, walnuts and pineapple. Bake 45-55 minutes until toothpick comes out clean. When cool, ice with cream cheese icing.

Icing

250 g cream cheese
1 teaspoon vanilla
500 g powdered sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice

Whiz in food processor.

Kazza's chocolate pantry slice (bars)

We're going on a picnic and then a party for dinner tomorrow, so I am cooking in preparation today. "Slice" is Australian for bars, and "pantry" is included in the name because (1) it's likely that you have all the ingredients in the pantry and (2) it's so delicious that you will have to hide in your pantry to eat it before your kids discover it.

1 cup plain flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 tablespoons cocoa
3/4 cup dessicated coconut *
2/3 cup sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
125 g melted, cooled butter
1 egg

Preheat oven to 180C = 350F. Mix flour, baking powder, cocoa, coconut, and sugar. In a separate bowl mix vanilla, butter, and egg, then stir into a well in the dry ingredients. Press into a lamington tin (7xll" pan). Bake 20 minutes (better under than over cooked). Frost cold slice with icing and sprinkle more coconut on top. Retreat to your pantry to enjoy.

Icing
1 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa
1 tablespoon butter
Milk to make spreading consistency.

*Coconut in Australia is different to American... smaller & dryer shredded bits... as you can see in picture.

Lentil soup

For dinner I made lentil soup (aka vegetable and ham soup to my theoretically-non-lentil-eating offspring). The following was tossed into the slow cooker at 11:30 am (small picture): a packet of brown lentils, 3 onions, 3 carrots, 4 cloves of garlic, half a bottle of passata (pureed tomatoes), a stock cube, a ham bone, and water. For the first 3 hours it was on high, then I added more water and cooked on low until it was served at 5:30 pm with toast and a Greek salad. Kids did not identify lentils. Success. (BTW: If I had started the lentils earlier in the day I would have cooked at low all day long).

Thursday produce shopping

Fruit: watermelon, apples (gala and fuji), Buerre bosc pears, rockmelon (canteloupe), grapes, avocadoes

Vegetables: carrots, red onions, cucumber, brussel sprouts, sweet potato, zucchini, eggplant, snow peas, green beans, celery, lettuce, spring onions, tomatoes

Plus eggs for a total of A$63 = US$47.

Toast pizza for dinner

The kids love this snack... dinner tonight... which I made with leftover tomato sauce. You put your toast, then your tomato sauce, then your pineapple slice, then your cheese... ouila! Perfection after melting under the griller (broiler).

Hot Hubby cooked Arabiatta

Dear Husband (DH) cooked tonight. His pasta sauce is always loaded with onions, which will be good for chasing our colds away this week. Anna was in charge of vegetables: leaf lettuce and chunky raw carrots. Grated grana padane cheese to sprinkle on top of the pasta.

Fried rice again

Fried rice cooked with no soy sauce for the purists. But soy sauce and sweet chili sauce are both on the table, along with a simple lettuce and tomato salad.

Clean-out-the-pantry crumbly crisp

In the US it's called crisp... in Australia it's crumble. I chopped up leftover fruit (Buerre bosc pears and dried apricots and apples) and covered with mysterious leftover bits from the pantry: almond meal, baker's 5 grain mix (mostly oats), wholemeal flour, cinnamon, brown sugar, walnuts, cinnamon and butter. I whizzed it in the food processor, which I regretted because the crispy crumble (or crumbly crisp) was too fine. Next time I will use my fingers for a coarser crumb.

Banana cake

Cyclone Larry has destroyed the main banana plantations in Australia this week, and banana prices are predicted to rise from $2 to $8 per kilogram... so we'd better enjoy our bananas now! This recipe has been adapted from the Betty Crocker cookbook. I have been using this recipe for 30 years!

1/2 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup oil
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups mashed bananas
1/3 cup water (or fruit juice)
1 cup plain white flour
2/3 cup plain wholemeal flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup walnuts

Preheat oven to 180C (350F) and oil a 9x5x3" loaf pan OR a bundt pan. Whiz sugar, oil, eggs, bananas, and water together, mixing well. Stir in remaining ingredients until just moistened. Bake ~55 min for loaf pan, or ~40 min for bundt pan.