Summer Salads

We're in the midst of enjoying salads at the moment. I know all of you in the northern hemisphere are thinking I'm a little bonkers...but for those in Australia, I know you're all looking for ways to enjoy your meals without heating up the house. For us, that means a lot of salad eating. By the end of summer I'll be wishing never to see another salad as long as I live, but for right now we're enjoying the sunshiney taste of yummy things not eaten since.....last summer!

Tinned Salad
One of my favourite I-can't-be-bothered meals comes from tins. Lots of salad things can come in a tin! We have beetroot (well ~ for those who like it....blech!), corn kernels, pineapple chunks, tinned potatoes can be rinsed, chopped and mixed with a dressing & fresh chives. Add some cold meat, sliced tomatoes and lettuce and you have dinner. Five minutes tops. You can pop all those tins in the fridge and then you cold salad ;)

Potato Salad
My favourite potato salad is just chunks of unpeeled desiree potatoes cooked until just tender. Then I make a dressing out of whole egg mayo (I use Praise brand) and a bit of dijon mustard and some fresh chives. Season with some ground rock salt and there you have it. I don't like my potato salad swimming in dressing. I like just enough for the spuds to be barely coated.

Sunshine Salad
I'm sure I got this from Steph's Country Kitchen Goodness. Her site has disappeared, much to my great sadness. Wherever the idea came from it's a goody!

Chopped lettuce or cabbage, crushed pineapple which has been drained (reserve the juice), grated cheese. To make the dressing just mix some mayonnaise with some of the reserved pineapple juice until the consistency is like a thinner dressing, rather than gloopy like mayo. Toss the dressing through.

Tossed Garden Salad
Really, a garden salad should be filled with things you love. For me, this means a red oakleaf lettuce, finely sliced spring onions, halved grape tomatoes, cucumber, mushrooms, shaved parmesan cheese and sliced kalamata olives. In reality, I put some olives on my plate and no one else's because no one but me enjoys them. I might also be inclined to add finely julienned carrots (I have a slicer thing that does this with no effort) or red capsicum. To dress, I mix 2 parts olive oil to 1 part white wine vinegar, a little dijon mustard and a little honey and then season with salt to taste. I don't buy salad dressings anymore, as I really do prefer this. You can leave out the dijon and the honey to keep it really really simple.

I'll post some salad main meals soon.

Last Menu Plan for 2008

What a momentous week for menu planning! The last one for 2008. Being well into the throws of summer now, most of our meals are focused around the BBQ and eating salads. Besides the fact that it's too warm to cook inside, quite often, we all get the can't-be-bothered's.

Monday: Corned Beef, vegies
Tuesday: Vegetarian Enchiladas, salad
Wednesday: Lamb Rissoles (garlic & rosemary), salad
Thursday: cold corned beef (leftover), salad
Friday: Singapore Noodles
Saturday: Either take away or cold meat & salad
Sunday: Warm Lamb & Feta salad

For those of us Aussie's who are attempting to avoid heat, I'll be posting some favourite salads this week.

Merry Christmas

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

I hope you have all had or are having a very special time with each of your families, celebrating the birth of Christ together with people you love.

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For us, Boxing Day has dawned clear and sunny. We have had a wonderful Christmas. Now we look ahead to three weeks of Dh being home for summer holidays. If my presence here seems a little scant and scattered, it is because the lure of family and the excitement of summer fun together will be more than a computer could possibly hold!

Summer Vegetable Garden

Just as well I went out yesterday when it was warm and sunny to take pictures. Right now it's drizzling with rain and significantly cooler. Just what my vegies needed I think. A good drink and some respite from the heat sounds good to me.


The tomato plants are looking a little behind. I don't think they like where they are, but the alternative was fighting off jumping jacks so I figured they could be a little unhappy. Better than any of us getting nasty bites. I've had tomatoes over there before and they did produce, so I remain hopeful. Ohhh the taste of homegrown tomatoes....I can't wait.

I strung together a little climbing frame for the beans on Saturday, for two reasons. Firstly, they like to climb and perhaps happy bean plants will produce lots of beans for us to eat, as a reward for keeping them happy :) Secondly, it's easier for me to find the beans if I don't have to dig around the plants all in a heap on the ground.

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My to-do list for the next couple of days feels a little like Mt Everest.

• Food shopping
• Finish Christmas shopping with the kids
• Clean bathrooms, dust & vacuum
• Move Mr Busy...to I-don't-know-where-yet
• Make Miss Mischief's summer nightie
• Finish wrapping Christmas presents

Written down like that it doesn't seem so bad...I think it's the idea of heading down the hill into the fray that makes me feel a tad overwhelmed. Nevertheless, we'll get going early this morning (no telly watching for the little chickadees) and get that over and done with early before the worst of the crowds decide to join us. There are definite pluses to being early risers!

Christmas Menu Planning

First of all I wanted to say thank to those who have been concerned about my little fall down the stairs the other day. My arm (where I collected the banister) and down my back ribs were a little tender but I seem to be doing OK now. I just have a lovely bruise on my arm. The girls got to and scrubbed the steps on Saturday so hopefully none of us will repeat the performance!

I'm sure, like everyone else, there are elaborate plans for special meals going on this week. My family are coming here on Christmas Eve, so I have more pavlova to make and I think I figured out that I'm just doing meat aside from that ~ Mum will bring and take care of the vegies. But oh what a week we need to fit into three days LOL. My biggest dilemma is where to put Mr Busy while my parents are staying with us. He usually sleeps in the room that now has a Christmas tree standing rather proudly....and taking up a significant amount of space!

In any case...menu plans. We have kids on holidays, and Dh as well for a few weeks now so somehow I think I should be planning lunches too!

Monday: Out for dinner
Tuesday: Honey Soy Chicken, brown rice, stir fried vegies
Christmas Eve: Stuffed Pork, roast chicken, glazed ham, vegies
Desserts: pavlova, chocolate tart, fruit mince pies
Christmas Day: Leftovers at my brother's place
Friday: Hamburgers, bbq'd potato cubes
Saturday: Roast Chicken, vegies (leftover meat for sandwiches)
Sunday: Marinated chicken wings, salad, bbq'd potato

I'm going to take my camera out later today and gather some pictures of the vegie garden. Quite a few people have commented about forgetting we're in summer here and that we're into peak growing season. That'll give me a good reason to do some more weeding won't it!

Five Sleeps Until Christmas

It seems that as Christmas draws closer the little flurries of activity around here will grow until they become cyclones!

We have some jungles...err..lawns to mow today. And then some vegie gardens to weed and mulch. 'Garden' is a bit of a loose term I think. There are rhubarb, beans and tomatoes somewhere in amongst the weeds. I also want to plant some zucchini. We need them to start producing a little later than they might otherwise, hence the late planting. Hopefully the rain will have washed away some of those pesky jumping jacks. Today is the kind of day where I am so grateful for children old enough to do things. Mr Busy mows, under supervision and we are all capable of pulling out weeds, and understanding which plants need to stay.

I slipped down four steps out the back yesterday. They've become quite slimy and slippery this winter, so one of us will take to them with a scrubbing brush. I have the bruises down my arm that will insist that this job be completed.

And finally, lots of present wrapping and cooking in preparation for the family Christmas gathering tomorrow. Dh's family made the wonderful decision to meet before Christmas....we get to actually spend time together this way rather than rushing off, and we're all there, which would not be the case on Christmas day.

Fridge Update

I found a very prompt, gentleman who altered his route for the day to come and see to our fridge before another job he had scheduled. He came within an hour of my call and has been and gone. The fridge appears to be doing the right thing again.

I, of course, am a few hundred dollars lighter for the experience....but the lovely man assured me that our fridge was worthy of repairing as it is one of the good ones. It's about 16 years old and was built back in the day when things were made to last.

Mr Busy has also provided my first experience of children saving parents money! As the man poured warm water over the defroster, which was covered in ice, Mr Busy sat behind the fridge and scooped out the water from the collection point at the back. He saved me half an hour's worth of labour. I love that boy.

I'm collecting myself quite a little gathering of repair and service people this year. If you want a good plumber/gas heater repairer or a whitegoods repairer, I have some lovely men that have visited promptly, repaired appliances and offered sufficient advice so that they don't have to come and visit so often. As nice as they are, they're not cheap! Cheaper than a new appliance though.