Bread machine book

Wow this is a great book. It's by the same author as my recent favorite The Ultimate Rice Cooker Cookbook. I made the polenta-sunflower-millet bread, and I am not joking: my 7-year old son asked to have it for dessert, and went down on his knees and pretended to worship it. This is half wholemeal bread with whole millet in it for heaven sakes... and yes I made it for him again the next day. Currently I'm making walnut-oatmeal bread .. it was supposed to have sunflowers but my kids don't like them so much. I would like to try the following:

Toasted sesame-whole wheat (100% whole-wheat with sesame oil and seeds)
Dakota (from Cafe Latte in St Paul MN, containing bulgur wheat and sunflower, sesame, pumpkin and poppy seeds)
Whole-grain daily bread (made from leftover cooked whole grains such as brown rice)
Stonehenge bread (with millet, bulgur, polenta, rye, oats and whole wheat)

Noodle soup

My daughter is staying over at a friend's house tonight, so my son and I had a fun afternoon together. First he led me on a 2 hour bike ride where we got "lost" but in actual fact I was mostly just exhausted by the end and he wanted to get more "lost". We came home and had this Asian-style vegie soup with noodles, carrots, green beans, spinach, mushrooms and coriander in a chicken broth flavoured with ginger, garlic and soy sauce. And of course eaten by candlelight.

Produce shopping

Today we went to the market and bought:

Fruit: lemons, pineapple, apples, mandarins, navel oranges, avocadoes, tomatoes, baby Roma tomatoes

Vegies: 1/2 celery, potatoes, 1 swede (turnip), spinach (Swiss chard), brussel sprouts, green beans, red capsicums, sweet potatoes, carrots, mushrooms, coriander (cilantro), lettuce.

After being on vacation I'm feeling like eating very simply... vegies and whole grains.

Lemony spinach and lentils

I've made this recipe many times before (from the ancient Betty Crocker's International Cookbook, which my Mom gave my Grandma, and then my Grandma gave me since she didn't use it) but this is the first time I've actually added grated lemon peel, like the recipe called for, and wow it makes all the difference... much nicer than just lemon juice. The other ingredients are brown lentils, carrots, onions, garlic and chicken stock cubes. Frozen spinach and lemon peel and juice are added at the end. Served with frozen corn and brown rice (finally, perfection! wash then soak for an hour before cooking; it's more work, yes, but the rice is really delicious and even Anna is starting to eat it).

Detox pseudo-botox re-oxidation cabbage and vegie soup

After a week of excess wine, food and chocolate mudcake, I needed a simple vegie soup to recalibrate the system. This was inspired by a soup my Norwegian sister-in-law made last week, and it was very delicious. I ate three bowlfuls and it was probably many fewer calories than any one of the slices of the communal birthday cake I ate last week. Simply potatoes, onions, carrots and lotsa garlic, tossed into the slow cooker to simmer all day long with chicken stock. Cabbage and olive oil were added in the last hour.

Beach holiday

We've been on holiday the past week. We visited DH's family, about 9 hours' drive north. Instead of daily maximum temperatures of 10oC (50oF), it was up to 25oC (75oF). The water was so warm that the kids swam every day!! We stayed in a 2BR townhouse 2 blocks away from the beach. It was so good to be warm and see the family, especially all the kids' cousins, including one visiting from Norway whom they'd not met before.

Wednesday stir-fry dinner

Stir-fried red cabbage, carrots and tofu; brown rice (soaking before cooking in the rice cooker really works well -- I also wash the rice beforehand which makes it less gluggy); and steamed sweet potatoes.

Anna's artwork

I could be biased... but I think this king, queen, butterfly princess and sun are beautiful! Anna made these at home all by herself, without copying anything.

Bean burritos on Monday

I wish my kids would enjoy eating beans other than canned baked beans. I personally thought these adzuki beans -- cooked with red capsicum and lotsa garlic -- were delicious but the kids only ate the requisite couple of mouthfuls. Oh well, at least they eat all the vegies and Tom loves the brown rice.

There is also an action shot of me cooking dinner... a classic 5 pm gossip with a girlfriend which makes all the difference while salad spinning.

Sunday night dinner

Nigella (Lawson) let me down tonight. I used her recipe for one-pan chicken and though I liked all the ingredients, I disagree with the one pan! You place chicken on top of cubed potatoes, quartered red capsicum, red onions, and -- count them -- 16 unpeeled garlic cloves. I found the result tasty but too oily from the chicken fat. Next time I'd put them in separate dishes. The roasted red capsicum was a treat with the potatoes, and the garlic cloves were divinely soft and sweet, to squeeze out onto the chicken. My kids love garlic... they each had 6 cloves and were disappointed there weren't more!

The salad was baby spinach leaves, baby Roma tomatoes and avocado.

My new wok!

Our old wok died. We got it as a wedding present, 10 years ago, so I figure that's a decent lifetime for something used several times a week. So I went and got the BMW of woks, thanks to a recent sale: a Danish-made Scanpan. It's big, it's heavy, and it's so non-stick that when I put the vegies in it they almost flew across to the other side of the room!

I'm reasonably happy with my new rice cooker. In particular I'm glad I got the more expensive kind that has the lid that seals tightly. But reading about the BMW of rice cookers -- Zojirushis -- I do wish mine had a brown rice setting because mine doesn't do it as perfectly as I like, i.e. distinct, chewy but non-mushy grains without starchiness on the outside. This batch was better because I followed the instructions in the Ultimate Rice Cooker Cookbook for extra water and an hour soaking time.

The tofu was braised with mushrooms, soy sauce, mirin, garlic and ginger. My kids prefer it braised to baked -- I like both, but sometimes crave the crispy outside of the baked.

Good morning to myself!

My friend's mom (well, mum) says 'Good morning to myself!' when she does something which is relatively tedious in the scale of life but still it makes you happy every time you look at it. I say this every time I see my (drum roll please...) newly organised pantry!!! Isn't it beautiful! And yes, Mom, the spices are alphabetised.















On the left side of the top shelf, I've got rice (brown, Basmati, Arborio, sushi); legumes (red and green lentils; adzuki beans; 9-bean soup mix); and grains (millet, cornmeal, polenta, barley) in stackable containers. On the right side, I've got sauces, condiments, stock, and canned fruit.




On the left side of the next shelf, I've got my oils (extra-virgin olive, canola) and vinegars (Balsamic, apple, rice); garlic in a bowl; lots of stock cubes; and extra bits (coconut, sunflower seeds, apricots, barley). On the right side is all my spices on a Lazy susan. Behind are cans: tuna; beans (refried, chickpeas, red kidney, cannelini); tomatoes (paste, crushed, pizza sauce, prepared sauces).

Good morning 2

On the left side of the next shelf is bread (rolls, tortillas, crumpets, and usually breadmaker bread); spreads (peanut butter, vegemite, honey, jam); nuts (almonds, peanuts, walnuts); dried fruit (currants, sultanas); and crackers (corn thins, wholemeal, Vitabrits).



Now on the left side of the next shelf we've got breakfast cereals (Weetbix, muesli, oatmeal, Oat Flakes, 4-grain Cheerios). On the right, a basket of pasta and noodles as well as a basket of breakfasty things (rolled 4-grain flakes, millet puffs, barley flakes, brown rice flakes).




On the bottom floor I've got vegetables (onions, sweet potatoes, pumpkin); bread mixes; juice and mineral water; and my trusty slow cooker.




There we go. I feel we are good friends now that you know my pantry intimately!

P.S. Baking stuff in drawer

P.S. All my baking ingredients (flour, sugar, vanilla, baking powder etc) are in a drawer under the counter I usually make bread/cookies/cakes on. I like that I can see all the ingredients from above, plus it reminds me of the flour drawer my Grandma had in her farm kitchen, in which she stored all the ingredients to make homemade bread every week.

Too much information?

I hesitate in posting this as it seems quite mundane but I think I would be interested -- in a Mrs-Beeton's-Household-Hints-kind-of way -- in other people's grocery purchases! And remember, I've been home all week with a sick family ... grocery shopping was my first exciting outing for the week! This was a HUGE grocery shop for me. I have been cleaning out my pantry and eating odd meals from mysterious things found in its recesses... and now have replenished it. I usually go to the grocery store about once a month for the basics. Then every week I go to the produce markets, to get fruit and vegies; natural foods from the bulk store there; and meat and fish sometimes. Then I pick up dairy and extras from the small (and slightly more expensive) local grocery store across the street from the school.

For American readers, A$1 = US$0.75. You'll probably have to click on the picture (thus downloading a bigger version) in order to read it. Have fun.