Farewell!

To all of you who have followed this blog over 2011, thank you! In case you had not realised, I have decided to no longer post on this lovely blog.  What a project and inspiration it was to spend 2011 on such a tight budget and share with you the challenges that went with it.

It was all worth it and we are finishing off the construction of our new home.  With that comes the loss of my tight budget and moving out of the rental property with the 1950s kitchen that inspired this project in the beginning.

So thank you all for your contributions, it has been a wonderful experience.  If I find inspiration of another kind online anytime soon I will be sure to let you know.  In the mean time make sure you follow http://lifein500words.wordpress.com/ which will no doubt fill any writing void I may find.

Triple family sized casserole and my new Tefal Fresh Express

Today I was meant to catch up with some girlfriends for a big bake-off and to test run a Tefal Fresh Express that I have been given to trial.  But you know what they say about the best laid plans... and busy mums and sick kids.  So we had to ditch the catch up but I already had the makings of a super triple family sized sausage casserole, and the Tefal Fresh Express to trial.   So I just spent some time in the kitchen getting it all cooked up ready to share around with some friends.

The Tefal Fresh Express is pretty nifty.  The best way to describe it is an electric desktop grater.  Not quite a food processor (you can't mix things around) but it handles most of the slicing and dicing.  Super easy to use (I haven't read the instructions...  ssshhh don't tell anyone) and really easy to clean. 

I'm pretty excited that it has a splash of red on it, as I am hoping to accessorise my new kitchen (that was put in this week) with red.  You need two hands to use it; you hold the button with one and push the food in with the other.  Its nice and compact and light, so much so that tonight I will pack it back in its box and lend it to a colleague at work to test out.  Thanks to The Soup for the opportunity to try out this cool new kitchen gadget.

Hoummos

This Hoummos is a delicious moreish summer snacking recipe.  Perfect with corn chips or lightly toasted salty pita bread.  Full credit for this one goes to my lovely friend Tammi.

Interesting fact, Wikipedia tells me you can spell it "hummus, houmous, hommos, humos, hoummos, etc."

1 tin chickpeas
1 tablespoon Tahini (this costs a bit but keeps in the fridge virtually forever)
1 teaspoon minced garlic
5-8 tablespoons of lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon cumin
2 tablespoons olive oil

Basically you put all these things in the food processor (or a stab mixer works well too) and mix it all together well.  I like it really lemony, so if its a bit dry I add more lemon and/or olive oil.

Let it be known I truly believe this is the only "good" use of chickpeas....

Rogan Josh

This was a winner dish!  I can't even remember where I got the Pataks recipe base from; maybe the Good Food and Wine show earlier in the year?  I didn't quite follow the instructions on the back, I added extra tomato (because that was the size of the tin I had) and left out the water.  Instead of cooking it on the stove top I put it in a crock pot in the oven on low for a couple of hours.  It had a most gorgeous flavour and wasn't hot/spicy at all. I'll definitely be purchasing this one again. I admit I didn't attempt to feed it to the kids; but at a long shot they just might eat it.  My only complaint was that it wasn't a "family" size portion, the two of us ate it all up with no leftovers.

Citrus cheesecake

This afternoon we are heading the park for a pizza picnic in celebration of my mother-in-law's birthday.  I offered to make a birthday cake and she selected this recipe.  Unfortunately the local IGA didn't stock the CSR Smart Sugar blend so I substituted with caster sugar.  Hopefully it still tastes okay.  I was a little concerned with my oven, it's not fan forced and cooking cakes can be unreliable.  Especially when you are trying to slow cook something at a moderate temperature.  But I am really pleased with how it has turned out.  Aesthetically at least, the taste verdict will need to wait until later in the day.

Chicken risotto in the pressure cooker

Today I have tried to cook a couple of meals to have ready to go in the fridge this week.  One of them was using up a Maggi Pressure cooker meal mix I have had in the cupboard for a while.  It certainly was a quick and easy meal to make.  I doubled the amount of chicken the packet suggest and went easy on the baby spinach (knowing I will be pulling it our for some of my customers).  It tastes pretty good although a bit bland.  In comparison it has nothing on the Chicken cacciatore risotto that I often make, nor the bacon and leek risotto I have also blogged about before. 

This week's food is bought to you by...

A big pantry clean out which found a number of recipe bases stashed away and two books that I picked up at the second hand book stall at the school fair.

Today I have tried the pikelets from the Women's Weekly book.  They are made with wholemeal flour so will be in the lunch boxes this week.  There were quite a few other baking recipes in there I would love to try, but I had run out of eggs. My online shop is due tomorrow evening.