Make-Ahead Smoothies ♥

A great tip for smoothie makers, how to make them ahead of time: Just make 'em, that's it.

So am I the last smoothie lover to figure out that smoothies can be made ahead of time?! If so, sorry, move on with your day, I'll try to do better next week. :-) Otherwise, join me in this life-changing smoothie revelation:

Easy prep ahead of time, all that washing and chopping done all at once and out of the way for the week (or at least three or four days).
Good-sense portion control, a great feature since I don't know about you, but a blenderful of smoothie just calls to me, "Drink me nowwww, NOW I say!"
An easy on-the-go, out-the-door breakfast, a quick after-swim snack all ready and waiting in the fridge.
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A road trip, a pumpkin and a well deserved coffee!

19/5/12 - Tunne Cliffes Lane - about 7km north of Heathcote along the Northern Highway


A really good night sleep followed by wholemeal pancakes for breakfast kicked my weekend off to a fine start. An easy hour's drive sout-west to my home town, Heathcote (shiraz country), a quick catch up with some extended family, stacking a load of firewood in the trailer, then lunch at Flynn's winery - http://www.flynnswines.com/ for a friend's birthday.

We then stopped by my folks place to for a cuppa and to raid Mum's latest batch of kasoundi and green tomato chutney. Home grown tomatoes of course! She also dug up some jerusalem (f)artichokes which will be made into soup this week, and gave us the most amazing pumpkin I have ever seen:

(apologies for the upside-down photo on the right). It is a good 40 cm across the loop, the bulb on the end is about 15-20cm diameter, and the long stem part is about 8cm diameter. It is hard to show the size of it in these photos. I cut and used about 500g of it tonight and 3/4 of the long stem part remains, so it will feed us for a while!

A quick game of scrabble with my sis [she thrashed me as usual], then off exploring for fossils in Trilobite Gully (oh the places you'll go with an enviro-science type for a hubby!). Didn't find any dinosaurs, but snapped the lovely photo that opens this blog entry. Hit the road and home with a bit of daylight to spare. Threw a few sticks for the pooch into the river to burn off some of her sillybeans. 'Helped' collect wood to get the fire started (mostly watched). Easy dinner and quiet night. Just what the doctor ordered.

A sleep in this morning, then a 16.6km run* to the lovely riverside town of Murchison. Lunch and (the well deserved) coffee with some great friends. Highly recommend Wagner Bros Fine Food Store http://www.locavored.com/wagner-bros-fine-food-store/. Delish coffee, and really good, wholesome food. Eyed off the cakes but resisted somehow.

[*Currently in training for the Run Melbourne half marathon (21.1km) in mid-July. 16.6km is my longest distance for over a year. Hello pain my old friend.]

Home for a relaxing hot bath and an afternoon of pottering around the house. A cuppa visit from a friend exploring an off-the-beaten-track mountain bike route from Murch to Shepp - looking forward to trying that one out!

Now, back to the pumpkin!

I am fortunate to have a very big family, and one of my many wonderful aunties hooked me up with a great recipe book recently: River Cottage Veg Everyday (http://www.amazon.co.uk/River-Cottage-Veg-Every-Day/dp/1408812126) in which the very lovely, passionate and talented Hugh Fearnley-Whittinstall teaches us to turn boring old veg into tasty meals in their own right. Yes folks, there was no meat in sight tonight!

Using Mum's pumpkin, and a few alterations to suit the larder supplies, I whipped up North African Squash and Chickpea Stew. Hubby suitably impressed. Plenty of left overs for lunchest this week.

one of my favorite little things, above (the groovy egg timer)

the pumpkin.... and the stew mid-cook


The finished article with some roti:

Delicious food for the soul! Think I might need it for the coming week!

Until next time...

E
<a href="http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/346/1675360/restaurant/Victoria/Nagambie/Wagner-Bros-Murchison"><img alt="Wagner Bros on Urbanspoon" src="http://www.urbanspoon.com/b/link/1675360/biglink.gif" style="border:none;padding:0px;width:200px;height:146px" /></a>

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Rhubarb Curd ♥

Today's fun and easy rhubarb recipe: A take-off on lemon curd, not quite so tart but definitely "rhubarb sour" and with gorgeous color, especially in this easy and oh-so-pretty parfait.

Who says that lemon curd has to be made with lemons? Ahh, well yes, of course, lemon curd must be made with lemons and in my world, always always as Brown Sugar Lemon Curd, my Canadian family's signature recipe. But a couple of years back, my dear friend Mary served a couple of fruit curds for a book club dessert and while I've lost track of those recipes (mango perhaps? raspberry?), the idea of a fruit curd stuck.

Enter a handful of beautiful rhubarb from last Saturday's trip to the farmers market. Rhubarb custard pie? Muffins? (I'm still on the hunt for my go-to rhubarb muffin recipe. Rhubarb lovers, I'd love to try your muffin recipe if you'd be willing to share, especially if it's less-sweet and made with at least some whole-grain flour.) My mom's rhubarb bars or rhubarb torte? Instead I settled on this simple curd. Great call, Alanna!

RHUBARB REPORT So the beautiful Canadian Red rhubarb hauled from Minnesota (thank you, Auntie Meryl!) to Missouri last year is still alive, despite: a hot-hot-hot and dry-dry-dry summer in 2011; a neophyte weeder who luckily stopped short of digging up those "weeds with pretty leaves"; and just last week, a blast of Round-Up from a clueless rhubarb-hater. YIKES. The good news is, mine is no hothouse rhubarb, it is TOUGH stuff. Pies to come!
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Crochet

Trying to teach myself to crochet, after admiring some very nice crochet slippers on etsy :o)

I started with this youtube video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqca00LdmAc - thanks Naztasia! So helpful and positive!

Here's my first attempt. It is a square masquerading as a blobby triangle. But it is cute.

Decided the yarn I was using (100% acrylic) was too stringy, hard to tell one chain from the next. I dug around in a bag of wools and other goodies my hubby's Nana Mavis gave me, and found this netting kind of ribbon fabric. Someone crafty will tell me it has a proper name. It didn't come apart as the wool had done, and was pretty sturdy, so was good to practise on. This is what I made next:

and that grew into this:

In the background are tonight's effort - something that ended up looking like a mini-beanie, and another - maybe the start of a scarf. Oh! The places you'll go!

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Sugar-free Banana Bread

Sitting around with huzzy and friend drinking pots of coffee and decided we needed some food... so I made this up. Everything is approximate! And when I say sugar free - there is probably a little in the yoghurt... and of course in the honey - but no sugar as an ingredient.

Melt 100g butter, stir in about 2-3 tablespoons honey, mix well, add 2 eggs, mix! Add 1-2 overripe bananas (I only had one but another would have improved it). Mix well and mush the banana so its not too lumpy. Add a big spoonful of vanilla yoghurt. Mix. Add a handful of chopped walnuts and macadamias. Add a teaspoon of cinnamon, and some freshly grated nutmeg if you have it. Add about half a cup wholemeal flower and about the same of self raising flour. Mix well and hopefully it looks something like a cake mix. Add milk if too dry, or more flour if too wet. Put into lined loaf tin. Oven about 180, for about 20 minutes. We have polished off half the loaf! I'd probably go a bit more honey next time, and i think with the extra banana it would be a little sweeter.

 

Tis a bit rustic... but tasty!

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Ruthie's Thyme & Bacon Chook

I managed to extract this secret recipe from my friend Ruth, and what better way to keep a secret than stick it on my blog!

Its is with adoration and thanks that I post this recipe, in honour of this wonderful person who is moving to another city for exciting adventures with her family.  Thanks for the memories :) Skype ya later.

No idea what the official measurements are, but this is what worked for me:

What you need:
- A whole chicken, broken down into parts - I got the butcher to do mine. I think I'd use just chicken thighs or drummies next time for something different.
- 300g bacon - cut into small pieces
- 12 shallots, peeled and halved
- olive oil
- white wine
- fresh sprigs of thyme
- fresh rosemary
- pepper
What to do:
- heat oven to 220 degrees celcius
- place shallots in base of heavy casserole dish
- sit chicken pieces on top of shallots and scatter bacon over
- pull some of the thyme leaves off and scatter, and throw in some sprigs whole, same with rosemary
- add pepper to taste
- pour olive oil over the top of the chicken and bacon (about 2-3 tablespoons)
- put in oven for 20 minutes, covered
- after 20 minutes pour a glass of white wine over and give the pan a shake
- return it to the oven without lid for another 20 minutes or until chicken is cooked and tender.

We served this with potato/sweet potato combo mash, just cooked buttery brussel sprouts and garlic mushrooms. Was a treat the following day for lunch with a basic salad too.

Thanks Ruth for sharing your recipe :) - you'll probably tell me that my interpretation of your recipe totally sucks, will have to come and try the real thing in ADL!

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Chunky 'Choke & Chickpea Chow ♥ aka Chunky Artichoke & Garbanzo Spread

Today's vegetable recipe: A great veg(etari)an sandwich spread, a sort of hummus meets artichoke dip. Weight Watchers, just 1 or 2 points, that's because the dense calories of chickpeas have been lightened up with virtually calorie-free artichokes. Vegetarian and when made with vegan mayonnaise, not just vegan, "Vegan Done Real".

Cha-Ching! When the word dancer in me noticed the chance to title this recipe with three CHs in a row, twas no chore to challenge myself to channel a fourth. "Chow" fit the bill! Chafing, I know, to my chagrin! But it might have been worse. You just don't the temptation to turn this into a mushroom spread too, you know, with chantarelles, perhaps with cheese and leaves of chive, served on china? And eaten with chopsticks! Please, tee hee, won't this arouse a small chortle?
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Greek Spinach-Asparagus-Potato Gratin ♥ (Spinaki me Sparaggia Orgraten))

Today's extra-special spinach recipe: A gratin that starts with a layer of potato, then is topped with a thick layer of the best "creamed spinach" I've ever made (or tasted). The secret? The spinach is mixed with asparagus! What a spring treat!

Three or four times a year, we share a dinner with a group of food-savvy friends who are the culinary branch of the Missouri Mycological Society. Each dinner carries a theme. Last month, we celebrated a "Greek Orthodox Easter" by cooking a whole lamb (note to vegetarians) at a green-as-summer outdoor venue west of St. Louis, part of Shaw Nature Reserve. I love-love-love this group! It's plain fun to cook with/for smart and food-obsessed like-minded food people and I also appreciate the forum to cook dishes slightly more complicated. Plus I always learn something!

And here's what I learned with our assigned dish, a vegetarian casserole called σπανάκι με σπαράγγια ογκρατέν, that's Spinaki me Sparaggia Orgraten [pronounced spah-NAH-kee meh spah-RAHG-yah oh-grah-TEN]. Spinach and asparagus are one very magical combination! The combination makes the very best – by far – creamed spinach I've ever tasted. I wondered if the bottom layer of potatoes might be gratuitous – but once the creaminess drops to the bottom to cook the potatoes, oh my, the potatoes are good too.
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