Monday Menu

A big two week post. Yesterday I felt queasy and unwell. Still do a bit. So i wasn't that inspired by food if it wasn't a salada. Hoping the girls don't catch it. Rob came home early to look after me.

Pick of the week Roast Mt Gnomon pork, and THAT ice cream.

Monday's Menu {Christmas baking has started}

The Christmas baking has started, with a sudden realisation that Christmas is only 5 weeks away I thought we'd better get our skates on.

So I prepared a double batch of fruit mince (started with a Nigella recipe then tweaked it a bit). We used lovely Amarena dark coloured glace cherries, golden raisins, Rob's home brewed apple cider, and hazelnuts in place of almonds.

While that was cooking away I soaked three separate batches of dried fruit. A double of our standard fruit cake mixture to make two cakes as gifts, the pudding mixture (my grandmother's recipe) and a Gourmet Traveller pudding mix that we used for our Christmas cake.

The Gourmet Traveller mix includes the following:

300gm prunes, chopped
150gm each currants, dried cranberries, raisins and chopped fresh dates (we used dried ones this time)
100gm natural almonds, chopped

These are all placed in a bowl with the rind of an orange.
Then I warmed 100gm cumquat marmalade (we always have plenty of our homemade marmalade), 60gm quince jelly (meant to be quince paste, but we always have an abundance of jelly), 125ml muscat and 60mL brandy (meant to be Grand Marnier) in a saucepan over low heat until the marmalade and jelly are combined. This is then poured over the fruit and left to soak.

On Sunday I made the pudding and our cake (I use Stephanie Alexander's recipe from the Cook Companion). It feels like Christmas now.

Our regular menu has included over the last week:

Monday: Asparagus, broccoli, peas and broad beans.
Tuesday: Silver beet, carrots, parsnips and cauliflower cooked with a little water and butter.
Wednesday: Antonio Carluccio's tuna linguine: with garlic, ginger, parsley, chilli, tomato passata and of course tuna.
Thursday: Penne pasta with bacon, with our garlic, fresh peas and broad beans, and Parmesan.
Friday: Vermey's BBQ sausages in squishy bread and our home-made tomato sauce.
Saturday: Mt Gnomon pork rack with carrots, pink eyes and broad beans.
Sunday: Pan-fried pink eye potatoes with our carrots, broad beans and peas.

It may look vegetarian, but we had been out for lunch a few times last week and eaten meat then, so only felt like vegetables in the evening.

What's been on the menu at your home this last week?

Monday's Menu with a side of our Spring garden and Cinnamon tea cake.

I like the ying and yang of this weeks Monday's Menu photo collage. Chocolate cherry cupcakes made with a jar of Bonne Maman cherry preserve right next to a very virtuous meal of steamed greens from the garden. The greens are starting to get going now, we ate three types of broccoli in our soup on Saturday, the ever present silver beet, as well as the tops of the Savoy cabbages.
I can not wait for the broad beans and peas to start. Yesterday we planted some more seedlings and seeds: lettuce, chives, sweetcorn, beetroot, rocket, radishes, and parsnips.

Anyway the menu:

Monday: Baked ziti with silver beet.
Tuesday: ahem, baked ziti with broccoli.
Wednesday: Steamed broccoli, silver beet and cabbage tops with soy sauce.
Thursday: Pork and fennel sausages on silver beet and fresh sourdough bread with home made tomato sauce.
Friday: Decided to live in the moment and headed down to Cygnet for dinner at the Red Velvet Lounge. Rob enjoyed a rump steak, with old-school chips and salad. I had the famous pork cotoletta. We shared a dessert of cherry ice cream and chocolate sauce, and we were back home by 8pm.
Saturday: The big grand final day with our annual consumption of footy food. We ate the footy franks in white squishy buns with mustard, tomato sauce and butter (that sentence confused a few of my international Instagram followers- they eventually worked out I was talking about a hot dog!) I'm afraid that they didn't make for a very photogenic food picture, but they were tasty. We used the remainder in a tomato and vegetable soup.
Sunday: Rob cooked us Patricia Well's Chicken breasts with sage and potatoes (parboiled, then sliced and cooked in butter).

My sister, her husband and my niece visited for afternoon tea yesterday, we had chocolate caramel and almond slice (similar to this recipe but with almonds), those cherry chocolate cupcakes and a simple cinnamon teacake. Which was probably the most popular! See the very simple recipe below.

Cinnamon Teacake {From Women's Weekly}

Ingredients:

60g butter, softened
2/3 cup castor sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup self-raising flour
1/3 cup milk
15g butter, extra
3 tablespoon castor sugar, extra
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Method
Preheat oven to 160deg C (fan-forced oven)
Grease and line a 20cm cake tin.
Beat butter, sugar, egg and vanilla until light and fluffy (about 5 mins).
Stir in sifted flour and milk with a wooden spoon, beat lightly until smooth.
Spread mixture into the tin, bake for approx. 30 minutes.
Turn onto wire rack, pour over extra melted butter, sprinkle with combined extra sugar and cinnamon. Serve warm with butter.

Finally Rob headed out when it wasn't blowing a gale or pouring with rain (not many opportunities over the weekend!) and took some photos of the flower and vegetable gardens with a real camera. I'll share them on Friday, but in the mean time I'll leave you with a photo of the dogs in the flower garden. Everything is starting to look very green and lush.

Monday's Menu

Back on track.
Sorry I'm yet to fulfil my promise of a risotto recipe post, but I will get there.

This week has been another quiet one. The only trip out from the hut over the weekend was to head to nearby Kettering and walk around the point (waving to the Bruny Island ferry as we left) and around to Trial Bay. A nice little stroll through some Allocasuarina forest and then some open eucalypt forest.
The puppies loved it. First of all it was a new walk. Second of all it was nice and muddy, so they came back with mud splattered bellies and paws. Thirdly, whilst we sat on the park bench handily placed on the point to watch the ferry they could paddle, and "accidentally" go in too deep!

So the menu this week:

Monday: Beef Shin stew with boiled potatoes.
Tuesday: Beef Shin stew with added mushrooms, potatoes and broccoli.
Wednesday: Stir fry rice with omelette.
Thursday: Pasta with Parmigiano-Reggiano, peas and parsley.
Friday: Mt Gnomon pork chops braised in white wine, fennel and apple with mash.
Saturday: Slow cooked lamb shoulder, with potato gratin and peas.
Sunday: Lamb, barley and vegetable soup.

A few treats during the week included a lunch date at Tricycle for pork meatballs on white bean mash, and a flying visit to Sweet Envy on Friday for our favourite potato and rosemary bread, and a few sweet treats. Rob picked a lemon meringue doughnut (which apparently was excellent, he declared Alistair a genius) and I had a Bada bing chocolate caramel biscuit, which was very good but I struggled to finish it.

Hope you had an enjoyable weekend.

Monday's Menu

The weather was absolutely foul yesterday afternoon and this morning. Pouring rain, snow on the hills, wind, cold temperatures. We hibernated yesterday afternoon, lazing on the window seat. But today we had to head into work. Poor Rob had to brave the elements to collect various eucalypts on the way to work for his practical class. He looked very soggy by the time he was done with that, luckily we had a dog towel (barely used) he could use to dry his hair and face, not much could be done for his mud splattered jeans though.

The menu at the hut has been quite simple:

Monday: After spending the day at home snacking we ate baked beans on crumpets.
Tuesday: Stir fry rice with the last of the pork belly.
Wednesday: Pasta puttanesca.
Thursday: Sausages and silverbeet.
Friday: Pork and veal cheese burgers.
Saturday & Sunday: Beef Bourguignon and mash pie

Monday's Menu, a little late

Hello. Sorry I'm late. I've flat out this week with the conference booth, so have only just got the chance to create my weekly menu photo collage.
We're both still recovering from this silly head cold, so neither of us has felt all that keen in the kitchen. But there were some highlights still:

Monday: leftover beef Bourguignon.
Tuesday: chicken and ramen noodle soup.
Wednesday: Pasta puttanesca .
Thursday: Baked beans and fried eggs on toast!
Friday: Spinach, fetta and mint pastry triangles.
Saturday: Roast loin of Mt Gnomon pork (Vermey's are stocking them now!) on a bed of savoy cabbage and apple with potato stacks. With a fruit mince and apple crumble for dessert.
Sunday: Rocket salad, with speck, soft boiled eggs and croutons.


I hope that next week is a little less frantic and I have some more time to write here. I miss it.

Monday's Menu

We had a quiet weekend. Slept in both days, I spent some quality time on the window seat whilst Rob constructed my garden beds.
It was hard to take him away, but I had ordered some free range pork, bacon and a shoulder of lamb from Mount Gnomon farm, and had arranged to pick it up from Guy at MoMa, the new food and produce market at MONA on Saturday afternoon. When we got to the gate people were still streaming in, there were cars everywhere. I have to admit we haven't been before. The place was buzzing and there was a long line to get into the museum. We visited Michelle for a chat and bought a jar of her peach jam, but it's presented so beautifully I don't want to open it. Guy was braving the stiff breeze that was coming up the Derwent.
Rob cooked the pork belly on a bed of red cabbage in the Weber, we ate late, the tender pork served alongside some steamed zucchini and beans.
Sunday was a perfect blue sky day and we stayed home all day. The garden beds are nearly done. I baked a batch of banana, walnut and choc chip biscuits. A cross between a biscuit and banana bread. They were pretty good, but Rob thought they needed a touch more sugar.
This last week we headed out for lunch nearly every day, oops. In the evenings we had grilled vegetables and beans on Monday, and just snacked on cheese and crackers on Tuesday. Rob spoiled me with birthday pancakes in bed before work on my birthday. I'd requested pesto for dinner, so he made deconstructed pesto, just frying the pine nuts and warming a garlic clove in olive oil. Then they're tossed through the pasta with basil and Parmesan.
Thursday we were adventurous and chose some lamb souvlaki sausages from our butcher. I made a mint, parsley, tomato and cucumber salad. It was just warm enough to eat it outside.
Friday night was a treat: dinner out at Red Velvet Lounge. We ordered some smoked eel croquettes for entree, then had a pork cutlet (each) on mash with rocket and red pepper pesto. We somehow squeezed in a honey and hazelnut parfait, and rolled home before 8pm!
Today I head off to Canberra for a night, not sure what culinary delights await me there.
Hope you had a great weekend.

Monday's Menu

What a weekend hey? (Sorry for those of you not in Tasmania, the weather was quite perfect, warm days and evenings- even got up to 30 on Sunday!)
Highlights this week food wise- chicken wings and asparagus cooked on the BBQ, the most tiny, perfect egg and ham roll from the Pigeon Hole Cafe for breakfast, Roast pork with roasted fennel and carrots, some more French and Spanish cheese, bubbles over to celebrate our visiting friend, and new season nicola potatoes.


I was saddened to hear of the death of Sarah Watt, the Australian film director and animator from cancer. I really loved the movie Look Both Ways. I think of her children, Clem 18 and Stella 13, and her husband William McInnes, and think how desperately unfair life is sometimes. Today I listened to a recent interview with William on ABC National Radio and he was still so positive about the time he had left with his wife and had not the slightest indication of bitterness or self-pity. I can honestly say that if I was in a similar position I'm not sure I could be that brave or act with such grace.

Friday Flowers

I updated my camera app on the phone yesterday and it's been misbehaving ever since. So my picture of the sage flowers is a little dodgy. Luckily by the time I got to work an update to fix the update was waiting in the app store.


I walk past these every time I head to the laundry/shed hut and out of the corner of my eye I think it's Lavender, even though I know we didn't plant any!

While we wait for our little box hedge to grow around the hut, we have co-planted with herbs, so far we have tarragon, sage, basil, thyme, coriander, mint and parsley. Also some beetroot for the leaves in salads. All are growing well except the basil which is being hammered by slugs, despite Rob's beer traps and frequent night time raids to squish them.

Looking forward to a slow weekend, a good friend is coming down from Northern Tasmania to stay for the first time. We have another pork shoulder to slow roast, some French cheese to eat and I'm debating what dessert to make, chocolate pudding, lemon tart or a steamed pudding.

Hope you have a relaxing weekend like I plan to.

Monday's Menu

It’s granola season at the hut. I struggle with eating breakfast during the week, I get bored easily, and I was so over porridge. I’d eat a mouthful and then not so subtly put the bowl down for Claudia to finish off (she loved me!) So last weekend I baked up a batch of Nigella’s granola (from Feast). What’s not to love about roasted Almonds, seeds, honey, and raisins? I made another batch yesterday but added some flaked coconut, pumpkin seeds and golden raisins as well. During the week we served it with strawberries, mango and rhubarb. Now I can't wait for breakfast.

As mentioned on Friday we took delivery of a box of goodies from Mount Gnomon farm. So pork dominated the menu all weekend. We’re not complaining though. Rob slow roasted the shoulder for three hours in the Weber on Saturday. Then yesterday we blasted it in our oven under the maxi-grill, that thing is wicked, I could see the skin blister! That crackling, I have to say, was perfectly cooked, shattering as you bit into it. It was then warmed up again in the Weber sitting on some sliced fennel, baby carrots and bay leaves, and served it with roast potatoes, the pork was deliciously juicy. Oh dear I’d better stop otherwise I might start drooling on the keyboard.

Finally, as it rained most of Saturday we were happily stuck inside, after lunch I fell asleep on the window seat with Claudia as a foot warmer, for several hours!

I thought I’d better do something worthwhile, so I measured out and chopped the dried fruit for two Christmas cakes (sultanas, currants, raisins, dried apricots and prunes).


Maybe the menu might have to be a little healthier this week (looking at what you eat all week is a bit of an eye opener) maybe even some salads and green vegetables! 

Top row: Scrambled eggs on Pigeon Hole sourdough toast, Granola with Greek yoghurt and strawberries, Italian sausages on mash with peas (an excuse to eat relish), creamy mushroom, bacon and pea fettuccine, spring vegetable risotto.

Middle row: Mount Gnomon bacon and egg roll, Sweet Envy jam doughnut and pecan sticky bun, Mount Gnomon chorizo, tomato and lentil risotto, dried fruit soaking in brandy for Christmas cakes, the roast pork shoulder (from guess who).

Bottom row: The pork served with roasted fennel and carrots, a pear poached in red wine, cinnamon, vanilla and thyme, our granola fresh out of the oven, this morning with rhubarb, gin and tonic season has started.

Friday Flowers

Not many new flowers in the garden this week. But the Nematolepis squamea (commonly known as lancewood),  is flowering at the top of our driveway next to our front gate. It has very pretty little creamy flowers.  So I thought I'd share one of Rob's macro photos of the flowers.




I'm not quite sure where this whole week has gone. I was hoping to get a lot more done at work. I've started counting down the weeks until my annual holiday, and sadly my to do list is not decreasing.


Yesterday I received a package in the mail from the company Land's End, I was being quite brave in picking a dress from their website. Unfortunately it was huge (I was worried it would be too small) and the style wasn't all that flattering anyway. I was a bit disappointed, I'm still looking for the perfect dress to wear. But maybe I should give up and try and find a skirt and top. I seem to be a bit long in the middle which means that waistlines never sit where they should on me, and I really don't suit an empire line dress!


Anyway as Nigella would say, food shopping is much less fraught with potential disappointment, so I'm looking forward to opening the box of goodies from Mount Gnomon Farm that arrived at work today. We ordered a pork shoulder, some bacon and chorizo. Thanks Guy and Eliza, I can't wait to taste the slow-roasted pork shoulder!

Monday's Menu

Well after looking at last weeks pictures I did tell Rob we should try not to eat cheese for a week. We almost got there, but on Friday we needed a quick last minute birthday gift, so we headed straight for Bottega Rotolo, and I knew we'd be walking out of there with some cheese.
Sure enough we did, a small washed rind and a hard cheese called Chebris Brebis that was made from a mixture of ewe and goat milk. Both excellent.

Top row: Spaghetti alla puttanesca, Rolled loin of pork stuffed with prunes, sage, breadcrumbs, garlic and onions, Friday's cheese platter with salad and bread.
Middle row: Strawberry Lemon Curd Puff, Left over pork on Tuesday :), Mini-roast lamb (shanks) with baked potatoes and carrots.
Bottom row: Stir fry with rice noodles and the last bit of pork, lamb soup, and roast potatoes.

Our weekend was:

Checking out the Italian Pantry’s new expanded premises- a lolly shop scenario for us. Cheese, pasta, wine, vegetable seeds, nuts, prosciutto, the list goes on.

Cooking dinner for our friends- roast pork, cooked on a bed of leeks and carrots with white wine and sherry vinegar. The first apple tarte tatin for the season, apples of choice were coxes orange pippins, Rob’s favourite. It was all delicious and the crackling was superb!

Breakfast on our friend’s deck in the sun- orange muffins with quince jelly with Mimosa cocktails and coffee! So hot for Tasmania at this time of year, a relaxing start to our Sunday.

Visiting the Market- I love this market, it’s so much nicer to shop for presents here than most other places! Found perfect presents for 3 upcoming birthdays (of the 7 in March/April). Tried Jo and Michelle’s truffles too- delicious and guilt free!

Swimming and walking at the beach- Nigella was very lucky - 4 beach walks in as many days. I even went swimming to escape the unusual stickiness; Hobart is not normally this humid.

Visiting the block- a quick visit to walk around and check on the trees in the orchard. We should get a few apples this year from the trees we planted in 2007. Nigella and Rob enjoyed some golf, tee off from the hut site to the green just near the water hazard. Nigella loves this activity and helpfully (not) picks up the balls and drops them into the water hazard (the dam!)

Cooking a favourite recipe -Chicken under bricks from Patricia Wells’ book Trattoria. In our case the electric grill folds over and is heavy enough to keep the chicken flat. Cooked in less than half an hour. Served with steamed and buttered pink eyes and runner beans (cooked with onions, tomatoes, garlic and allspice). A Sunday night feast.

Making the most of a rainy day- a late breakfast of soft boiled eggs and Steve’s rye bread toast. Baking Anzac biscuits and a carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. Reading a favourite book on the couch whilst watching the rain pour down.

How was your weekend?