Monday Menu Plan: Week Beginning 8 January

A friend asked me the other day if I had been doing in crafting or reading over the holidays.  Sadly my response was "not much crafting".  I've been doing too much Nigella viewing to do much crafting.  Perhaps this week will be the week?  But I have just finished "Lion of Bablyon" by Davis Bunn.  Fantastic read....and now I need to pick something else from my burgeoning 'TBR' pile.  You know...when I'm not reading about teaching Primary science constructively, of course.

I have a menu plan.  For the first time since Christmas.  Dh will be pleased as there is plenty of BBQ'd meat and salad ahead.  Nothing pleases him more....other than cake.  Or biscuits.  Or slices.  Or anything made with vast amounts of sugar.

Monday: Prawn & mango curry, rice
Tuesday:  Pork chops (marinated), salad, potato
Wednesday:  Hamburgers, potato
Thursday:  Chicken wings (marinated), salad, potato
Friday:  Tomato & bacon pasta
Saturday:  Take away
Sunday:  Roast chicken, vegies

I'm not one to buy prepackaged, pre-made food because it's a rare thing that the store-bought item will be better or tastier than homemade.  Crackers for cheese are probably one of the few exceptions.  But this week I bought gnocchi.  I bought it because I don't intend to eat it the way I normally would - as a pasta meal.  I'm going to try out Nigella's idea of using them as quick mini roast potatoes.  I've always been fascinated by the idea - this week I'm living dangerously.  And then I'll probably go back to never buying pre-made gnocci again.  Because I know it'll probably never be as good as the homemade version.

Anyway, see for yourself.  This is what we'll be trying out this week.

I'll let you know what I think.

The Serving Solution

My new salad dressing jugs

 

I don't buy salad dressings.  Are you surprised?  Probably not!  Actually, I need to qualify that statement - I don't buy oil/vinegar based dressings.  I do buy Ranch dressing and mayonnaise.

It's a decision I made a few years ago, once armed with some delicious and simple salad dressing recipes from the likes of Maggie Beer and Nigella Lawson.  My reasoning was not so much about any particular puritan belief about salad dressings, but rather a pragmatic response to the waste of them.  Our salad-eating season is relatively short-lived and confined to warm summer days.  This is probably because I have a tendency to prefer cooked vegies.  And probably why my family exclaim excitedly when the first salads of the season appear.  We don't avoid salads because we don't like them - we do.  
What I began to notice is that because of our short salad season, the dressings don't get used up.  What a waste!  So I began to make a quick dressing as we needed it, and that has been much more satisfying in all kinds of ways.

This has all presented somewhat of a dilemma.  I've also noticed that many families can't agree on what salad dressings they prefer and tend to put a variety of bottles on the table for each person to make an individual choice.  In the last week as we've entertained a couple of other families for meals, and knowing this is the practice in both families, I chose not to dress my garden salads.  But this meant putting the little jar, with the redcurrant jelly label still on it, on the table, as that is what I'd made my salad dressing in.  It just didn't look right and I knew I had to remedy the situation now, at the beginning of our salad-eating season.

I found the answer yesterday.  I was walking past House and these little jugs were in a big bucket, marked down for quick sale.  Upon exlaiming how cute they were and how perfect for salad dressing all three kids chorused "then BUY it!".  And so I did, for a grand total of $4.  I now have two little salad dressing jugs.  Never mind that they were labelled milk jugs - obviously the label was wrong!

Baking Plans

Fruit mince tarts - photo from a couple of years back.

I'm finally preparing to shop again.  For groceries.  I still can't bear to think about shopping for other things.  In thinking about menus and shopping lists I've also planned for some baking.  A cool change came through last night so we're back to rainy weather with cooler days that seem to beckon one to the kitchen and where turning on the oven is not an abhorent idea.

We've a week of camping planned with some friends, which is coming up faster than I realise.  We don't share the cooking of meals, having realised some 16 years ago that it doesn't work when families have different routines and tastes.  But the sharing of baked goodies is always enthusiastically embraced.  So....thanks to some inspiration from some precious young people who love to eat what I cook this is the list I'm picking from.  

 Brownies

Gingerbread

Shortbread

Chocolate Chip Slice

Coffee cake (iced)
Orange cake (iced)

I'd love to do it all, but I realise my stamina for baking is somewhat limited.  Perhaps some more Nigella: Forever Summer viewing might inspire me to potter serenely?  Certainly home-baking is the antidote to store-bought snacks that are filled with who-knows-what.  Perhaps a couple of sessions will get much of it done.

What are you baking this week?

From the Depths

The contents of one of my freezer drawers

In a post-Christmas I-just-can't-do-anymore-shopping stupor we've been eating mostly out of the depths of our freezer.  Much to Miss Mischief's chagrin this means very little chicken is to be found and I'll not be shopping 'til about Thursday or Friday, so the poultry famine is set to be lengthy.  Rather, we've still got some beef from back when we bought a freezer full from friends who had a lovely organic beast butchered.  Our recent trip to Costco means hot dogs for lunches, should we remember them at the proper time!  And then there is the requisite minced beef and pork, sausage mince, the remainder of a packet of prawns and a medley of all kinds of frozen vegetables.  There is actually some chicken wing packages in there somewhere too.

This overflowing little storage facility has meant that there has been no menu planning whatsoever going on.  But then there has neither been the frenzy of activity that requires it.  Very hot days and Dh being home while the office is closed has meant lots and lots of resting and DVD watching is almost all that has happened around here, sprinkled with the odd visitor for lunch.

Tonight, given the current outdoor temperature of 39.1C (102F) we'll be having one of my favourite summer-friendly Nigella recipes - Anglo-Asian Lamb Salad.  Lamb that is cooked and sliced, then steeped in a bath of delicious flavours and served over salad.  Of course, we have mountains of beef, so I'll simple substitute the meat and it will all turn out fine!  Rather than cooking potatoes we'll have bread and butter with it.  I think there's still watermelon for dessert.

Photo Credit: Nigella.com

This is how we survive the heat on scorching summer days:  food that barely needs cooking and the wonder of evaporative cooling.  Thank you, God - what a blessing!

Happy New Year

 
HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Welcome to 2012!  Our beginning to the year was spent with friends - the perfect beginning.

I was reading a blog somewhere the other day (you know you click you way to who-knows-where and can't find your way back?) that said "How to make God laugh:  tell Him your plans".  I'm not much of a resolution maker.  Perhaps my 'resolutions' are more like hopes and dreams.

This year my hopes are simple:  that this year will be less challenging than the last; that our family will continue to laugh together and enjoy life; that we'll successfully cope with another busy year ahead.  Most of all I covet God's blessing, peace and joy in our lives in whatever it is He requires of us.

Of course there are other things I naively dream of and hope they will come to be with little or no effort or forethought...time to stitch unendingly, time to read with abandon, to be able to walk uphill with a spring in my step and abundant breath in my lungs.  A girl needs to dream, doesn't she?

What are your hopes and dreams for the new, unblemished, promising year ahead?

Peace or Panic?

Are you, like me, the kind of adult who falls into a bit of a 'bah humbug' attitude to Christmas?  I must confess, as I've gotten older, my family larger and then older, and busier I find the lead up to Christmas quite overwhelming.  Each year I think to myself that I will get gifts, and things like that, organised well before December.  And then December rolls around and I find myself shopping amidst a crowd of others trying to figure out what on earth to buy for those I care about.

This year I think I've broken through all those feelings of being overwhelmed and it has all to do with knowing what I want to give people.  My own family can be amongst the most difficult of all, and yet this year it has been no problem.  All of the kids have had things on their Christmas list that give me a great deal of joy to be able to give.  In fact Dh, who the hardest of all to buy for, gave me some insight in the middle of the year and I've had his gift stashed away for three months!  The rest of the bits and pieces that end up happening around all those main family gifts has also come easily, again with the ideas already in place. I wonder, did the Wise Men who came to worship Jesus at his birth also feel overwhelmed and stressed about what to give the baby king?


Now that I've figured out what it is that had turned me into a scrooge, I'm hoping the Christmas's ahead will be calmer and more peaceful.  Our summer holiday is also set to be a more peaceful affair as we spend more time at home and holiday with different friends this year. 

I hope you're able to identify the things that have you in a 'tizz' as you prepare for Christmas.  May this year truly be one where you feel more peace than panic.

And Then There Were Five

As Christmas draws closer we have already begun family celebrations.  Our begin with my husband's side of the family gathering on the Sunday a week before Christmas.  It has taken some time, but we have now settled to enjoying the whole day together and then making a camp of it for a couple of extra days.  It helps to have a campsite in the family.

I've spent three days watching as 15 of the cousins have played and tumbled about together.  It is truly a precious gift to see young people from 22 years all the way down to 5 years enjoying one another, not to mention the adults.  We've enjoyed beautiful meals together and all but demolished a whole box of cherries.  What a blessing to live in an area where cherries are grown and to be able to buy them directly from the farmer!

And now we're back to just being the five of us again....after being a whole clan of shared lives and adventures together.

What a wonderful way to begin the school holidays and the Christmas season.  I'm looking forward to the rest of the week and celebrating with my extended family.  There is more food to be pondered, considered and prepared.  There are more meals to be shared with those we care about.  There are gifts to be showered on others.

What do you enjoy about the lead up to Christmas?