Monday Menu

Thanks for welcoming back this regular post. It was fun for us to go back and look at what we ate last autumn for inspiration, so I decided I wanted to bring it back. Thanks for sharing your menu too. Vegetables from our garden are featuring again - salad, carrots, parsnips, spaghetti squash, garlic, ruby chard and celery. We didn't grow potatoes and pumpkins so found some at our local fruit & veg shop.

M: Osso bucco and baked potatoes.
T: Pumpkin soup & cornbread.
W: Roast spaghetti squash, potato gratin, roast carrots and parsnips, and ruby chard.
T: Pumpkin, bacon and pine nut salad for lunch and blue cheese, pear and rocket salad for dinner.
F: Roast lamb and vegetables.
S: Toast, after eating too much pear and almond cake!
S: Chilli con carne & sweetcorn pudding.

Sorry I didn't photograph the cake, it was seriously good, so good I'd like to make it again this week.

What about you, did you bake Anzacs this week?

Monday Menu and the hut has got it's Christmas on

Sorry the blog was a little quiet last week. No real reason just time I guess.
We had a good weekend, on Friday Rob and I headed to the State Cinema to see Skyfall. I loved it. Although as the movie was over 2 hours long I did have to dash out mid way to visit the ladies, and I was fairly desperate to leave at the end too.

Because we'd picked the early showing (6.30pm) dinner didn't really work out very well, as it was too early before hand and then too late (for Hobart) afterwards. We did stop at Mykonos for some hot chips! Felt like an undergraduate student again.

The gale force winds on Saturday meant that we stayed inside, and so Rob got our decorations out of the loft and the hut was decorated in a few hours. We still love our homemade twig tree, and I've already spent the last two evenings gazing at the lights.


We've still been enjoying our veggies from the garden (although the wind totally trashed the peas and broad beans so they've been pulled out now and I spent several hours yesterday shelling beans and freezing them).

So our menu:

Monday: Real Shepherds pie with left over roast lamb shoulder, veggies with a topping of smashed pink eyes.
Tuesday: More Shepherds pie.
Wednesday: Salad with vegetables from the garden and bacon.
Thursday: Salad with peas, broad beans, bacon, avocado and parmesan.
Friday: ahem, hot chips!
Saturday: Some peas and beans from the garden.
Sunday: Rob made the best steak sandwich, with grilled bread, fried eggs, onions, tomatoes and of course steak.

All those veggies must be doing the twins some good, we visited our Dr on Friday, and when he measured them on the scan they were both measuring a week ahead! They now weigh an estimated 700g each.

Monday's Menu and snail mail

What an odd weekend weather wise, windy on Saturday (but sunny) then on Sunday we had rain/hail downpours every hour, so we kept trying to do stuff outside before scurrying inside to hide (especially Nigella and Claudia!)

We visited the Woodbridge Nursery and picked up some flowering plants for my garden and some lettuce and broccoli seedlings for the veggie patch.

On Sunday we took delivery of two round bales of pea straw and lucerne hay for mulch.

Menu wise-

Monday: Salad with carrots, cheese, broccoli, cauliflower and potatoes.
Tuesday: Chicken breasts with crispy sage on a bed of rice and peas.
Wednesday: Broccoli and chorizo frittata
Thursday: four bunches of asparagus steamed, prosciutto, fresh sourdough bread and a few slices of parmesan cheese (and soft boiled eggs for Rob.
Friday: Barbecue sausages and silver beet.
Saturday: An aged piece of porterhouse beef on the bone, roasted with onions. Our first harvest of some cute little parsnips and carrots, more silver beet and some steamed new season pink eye potatoes (not ours).
Sunday: As we ate some leftover beef on fresh bread for lunch, Rob just fried up the leftover pink eyes as chips with some parsley. Oh and we had an apple and raisin crumble for dessert (I always double the crumble recipe which means we have frozen crumble topping ready to go!)



I got busy stamping some parchment writing paper, putting my Webster's dictionary stamp set  and Kikki.K to good use. I have written most of my letters as part of Sarah's Good Mail Club, and it's quite satisfying to see the pile of fat creamy coloured envelopes pile up on the table.



How was your weekend? What have you been eating recently?

Monday's Menu

Rob and I had a long weekend, which was lovely. We headed up to Launceston to visit Rob's parents, and take them out for dinner (to belatedly celebrate his mother's birthday).

We had delivered some fresh oysters and a bottle of Champagne to have before dinner, (felt like teenagers prepping for a big night out with drinks at home!) We then headed to Novaro's, which is a small Italian restaurant. We enjoyed a bottle of Chianti, whilst snacking on some Ligurian olives. Rob and his mother had ordered a slow cooked lamb rump on a mushroom risotto, his father a Quail salad and I ordered the duck. I love duck, but we rarely cook it at home, so if it's on the menu it makes choosing quite easy.
The others meals came out first, they looked pretty good, but then mine arrived, it was half a duck! The duck was probably more Asian in style, flavoured with star anise and soy, it sat on a bed of red cabbage and apple, although I didn't think of as a common accompaniment to duck, was excellent. The duck meat was nice and moist, and after skipping lunch I managed (with a little help from Rob) to finish it all!

What else has been on the menu?
Monday: Fennel, rocket and orange salad, with leftover beef.
Tuesday: Tomato, vegetable and meatball soup.
Wednesday: Carbonara.
Thursday: Stir fried vegetables with noodles.
Friday: Dinner at Novaro's.
Saturday: Seafood paella and apple and fruit mince crumble.
Sunday: Beef short ribs with baked potatoes and rocket. I also made a big batch of cauliflower soup, which was really tasty- I will share that recipe later this week. Rob also treated me to pancakes with poached rhubarb and blood oranges for breakfast.

Monday's Menu

Hello again.

I couldn't resist posting twice.

As you know I was at a conference all week, and as you do, I ate morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea all week. Oh I felt like I was going to explode. I'm terrible I can't walk away from those sweet treats. As a consequence our evening meals were more like snacks.

Monday: Left over roast pork, cabbage and apple, rocket toasted sandwiches.
Tuesday: Rocket salad, with soft boiled eggs, speck, croutons and black pudding (much to the horror of many on Instagram).
Wednesday: Cheese, crackers and olives
Thursday: Steamed broccoli with chilli, lemon oil and anchovies.
Friday: Pasta and meatballs.
Saturday: Roast short rib of beef with thyme, baked potatoes and rocket salad. Followed by the sticky maple pecan cake
Sunday: A big lunch out, at Fish Frenzy, Blue eye trevalla and chips for Rob, crumbed scallops and chips for me and grilled fish and chips for Rob's daughter. It was nice, but I ate far too many chips and definitely didn't need dinner.

What was on the menu at your place this week?

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

This will be brief, I've caught Rob's cold, so am not feeling the best.

Our menu over the last week has been a little patchy.

Monday: A rocket salad with croutons, bacon and soft boiled eggs.
Tuesday: Roasted root vegetables (pumpkin, parsnips, carrots, swede) with leeks, onion and garlic.
Wednesday and Thursday: we just snacked as both of us were feeling unwell.
Friday: Left over roast vegetables tossed through couscous.
Saturday: Bratwurst with mash, peas and beer braised onions.
Sunday: Beef Bourguignon with potatoes.
We made a few baked treats too, almond and orange muffins for breakfast and a Tuscan Apple Cake, the jury is out on that one. We found a similar recipe (except that it contains butter) which we would like to try in comparison.
Here's hoping that some rest, lemon tea and panadol does the trick.

Monday's Menu {and beauty}

Last night Rob took the dogs out for what we call "a wee on a wallaby" around 10.30. Don't worry no wallabies are harmed in this procedure.
He came straight back inside to get me. The night sky is spectacular at the hut anyway, as there are no street lights around the stars are so clear and bright. But last night there was an Aurora Australis happening. Our first at the hut.
Despite the cold -- thank goodness I'd grabbed a beanie and polar fleece -- we stood in the dark at the end of the terrace and watched in awe as a shaft of silvery light shot up from the horizon and then became a series of shimmering waves, that slowly moved across the sky. The light was like a translucent curtain moving in a breeze. Beautiful. Stunning. Luminous.

I didn't even bother trying to take a photo. For once I was content to capture the memory in my mind, confident that I could record it in words here.


This morning the mist hung over the hills as the sun started to rise. I don't know why but Rob and I have become so much more aware of the beauty of where we live since moving to the hut. It was hard to tear ourselves away this morning for work.


So the menu this week:

Monday: Massaman curry, I used a paste I admit and the end result wasn't as good as I had hoped, but still tasted pretty good with rice and poppadums.
Tuesday: We fixed the curry, by adding some almond meal to thicken the sauce and some silverbeet. We ate it with poppadums again and some natural yoghurt.
Wednesday: Lemon linguine.
Thursday: Tomato, vegetable and meatball soup.
Friday: same soup with freshly baked bread (Rob stayed home to work!)
Saturday: Egg and Bacon pie with rocket salad.
Sunday: Rocket salad with soft boiled eggs, blood pudding (sorry Sarah), and sourdough croutons.


Yesterday we headed to the Cygnet market (which is held on the 1st and 3rd Sunday of every month, from 10am-2pm). We love Cygnet on market days. Even better they have an atm for our bank now! So we picked up free range eggs, vegetable seeds, almonds, spices, rhubarb, carrots, parsnips, swede, leeks, and silverbeet. We couldn't resist a couple of Eccles cakes from Lotus Eaters, a browse in the second hand clothes shop behind the cafe, a loaf of Steve's sourdough rye and a couple of his jam doughnuts. There was a cute new fruit and vegetable shop in town, and we found some coffee beans (we'd totally run out so we were on the hunt for some) and I spied a beautiful dark grey salad bowl, made by Emile Henry. Rob indulged me and bought it.

I'm thinking of collecting my recipe posts in a separate page as a list, what do you think?

Monday's Menu, with a side of beach walk

The menu was for warming comfort food this week, with grey skies and plenty of rain, we get home in the dark and need something to warm ourselves up. Autumn is slipping into winter. For some reason, this year I don't mind as much as normal. Although I do mind the mouse that has set up home in our heat pump!

Monday: we ate left over French onion soup (which was so rich for such a small serve), potato gratin with a salad.
Tuesday: we had a late lunch, so all I could contemplate was a rocket salad with pear, walnuts and shaved parmesan.
Wednesday: Pasta puttanesca.
Thursday: we stopped at my parents place for dinner. Mum made us her Italian beef with potatoes, and a delicious lemon cream dessert (I ate it too quickly to take a photo).
Friday: Baked potatoes topped with cheese and bacon.
Saturday: Beef curry with rice and papadams. The sauce was thick with spices, lentils, onions, garlic and chickpeas.
Sunday: Shepherds pie.
Baking wise, Rob made some rye baguettes and I made a cherry, almond and coconut slice from the Primrose Bakery cookbook. The slice hasn't lasted long, the container is nearly empty!
What have you been cooking recently?


We spent a happy afternoon on Saturday planting out my spring bulbs, carefully lining the paths with the tulips, and the ranunculus and anemones are spread randomly around the triangular beds. Now I just have to wait to see them pop up.
Yesterday after cleaning the hut, we realised that we were free to do anything, as the garden didn't need any further attention. It was an unusual feeling. We decided to go find some plants for Rob's botany practical, he wanted something new. So we grabbed the dogs and headed south. We didn't go far. stopping at Trial Bay. The dogs were super keen, after being cooped up all week because of the weather. Once off their leads they ran around on the rocky beach, sniffing seaweed, and cheekily looking over their shoulder to see if we approved as they waded into the water. I made a pathetic attempt at only letting them go in up to their legs, but as you can see that didn't work.
Rob walked at the back, taking photos of the plants, while I went ahead, determined to get to a jetty that I could see at the point. The rocks were beautiful colours, one even a bright aqua colour. Others were covered in bright yellow and orange lichen. I got to the jetty with two dogs hot on my heels, it was a bit rickety, but I encouraged them to walk along it, so I could take some photos. Those brave dogs, they ran up and down the jetty and looked back to where Rob was wandering along.
Once he got there I think they both wanted to show off a bit, Nigella spied a submerged branch and she swam out to get it, Claudia (who isn't as keen on swimming) even followed her out there. The water was so clear (and must have been freezing) but Nigella loved swimming around us out on the jetty even swimming under it. From our highpoint on the jetty, we were able to see her cute legs purposefully swimming under the surface. Nigella has hip dysplasia, so can't actually run very well anymore, but you could tell she was so happy to be swimming so freely in the water.
We could see a misty grey cloud coming so high tailed it back to the car. But it was a lovely way to spend the afternoon.

Photo collage from my iPhone. Some tweaked in Instagram.



These last three taken by Rob with the real camera.

Monday's Menu {cheat's ravioli}

How can it be the last week of March already?
This last week flew by, with my trip up to Brisbane, the weekend was upon us before we knew it. Poor Rob had a cold this week, so with the cold weather on the weekend a pot of soup and a casserole was in order.

This weeks menu:
Monday: After making a zillion spinach and ricotta triangles (Claudia Roden's recipe) for a Harmony Day lunch, I came home with the leftovers. We reheated them and made a Lebanese salad to match. I finally used the purslane I insisted we grow, it's nice and crunchy in salads. We froze the remaining triangles for an emergency meal some time.
Tuesday: Another salad with soft boiled eggs, prosciutto, Meredith Dairy Goat Cheese.
Wednesday: Our cheat's ravioli - see below for the recipe.
Thursday: Massaman Curry, whilst I was in Brisbane. I need to cook this one at home, I haven't eaten it before I don't think, if anyone has a favourite recipe for this curry please pass it on. Oh, and I couldn't resist the chocolate tart either.
Friday: Beef pho in the Canberra airport.
Saturday: Vegetable and barley soup.
Sunday: River Cottage Chicken and mushroom casserole with Cider. Best thing was there are enough leftovers to eat on pasta tonight after work and the gym.

The Hut Ravioli

As we ran through the supermarket the week before, we grabbed a packet of wonton wrappers from the refrigerated section.

Image from Supreme Quality Foods

We hadn't used these in a long time. But we had a faint memory of seeing Simon Bryant use them on the Cook and the Chef as ravioli instead of fresh pasta.

It was a week night, which means by the time we've been to the gym, collected our dogs from doggie day care (ie my parents place) and driven to the hut it was probably around 7. We decided to "make" ravioli for dinner. A week before I made a batch of Nigella's meatballs and frozen them for use in pasta and soups.

Nigella's meatballs

250 g pork, minced

250 g beef, minced (or we used 500g pork and veal mince)

1 eggs

2 tbsp parmesan, freshly grated

1 clove garlic, minced

1 tsp oregano

3 tbsp semolina, or breadcrumbs

1 pinches pepper

1 tsp salt

To make the meatballs, just put everything in a large bowl, and then, using your hands (if you wet them with a little water the mix doesn't stick as much), mix to combine, before shaping into small balls.

So I wrapped (a still frozen) meatball in between two wrappers (sealing the edge with a little water and squishing it out a little so the joins were not too thick).  Meanwhile Rob quickly fried a chopped onion and some garlic in a little olive oil before adding a bottle of tomato passata. We quickly boiled the ravioli then added them to the tomato sauce to finish off.

We served them with some dollops of ricotta cheese (left over from the triangles I'd made earlier), lots of chopped fresh basil and some grated parmesan.

They were good. I think we might have to try another filling this week. Any suggestions?

Monday's Menu

A very fast Monday's Menu
Favourite meal of the week- our first pesto (made from basil grown at the hut) pasta meal of the summer.
Laziest meal of the week- real peanut butter on Pigeon Hole sourdough toast.
Sentimental meal of the week - perfectly cooked (a little runny) boiled free range eggs with sourdough from Red Velvet Lounge.
Baking highlights include Speculaas biscuits for my friend, and the divine smell of the mix of currants, raisins, cranberries, prunes, fresh dates, almonds, muscat, brandy, quince jelly and Seville marmalade that soaked overnight for one of our puddings.


P.S. 20 sleeps to go!