Recipe: Baked Ricotta

Due to my arms not working last night we decided to forego having ricotta fritters and bought chicken and chips instead.  Not what I needed to be eating, but there is sometimes a limit to one's ability to persevere!  So there was over 1/2 a kilo of ricotta cheese in the fridge.  I love ricotta cheese so rather than let it spoil I found some way to use it for my lunches instead.   Google, again, was my friend by helping me find the recipe at taste.com.au.  And the recipe was easy peasy! I don't want to lose this one, so I'll copy and paste it here for us both.  But here is the link as well.

Baked Chive Ricotta

Olive oil, to grease
500g fresh ricotta
2 eggs, lightly whisked
1/2 cup finely chopped fresh chives
1 tsp chilli flakes
Salt & freshly ground black pepper

1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Brush two 250ml (1-cup) capacity ramekins with oil to lightly grease.
2. Combine ricotta, egg, chives and chilli in a bowl. Season with salt and pepper. Spoon ricotta mixture among ramekins and smooth the surface. Place on a baking tray. Bake in oven for 30 minutes or until golden and set. Set aside for 30 minutes to cool. Turn onto a cheese board. Serve with baguette chips.

Source Good Taste - November 2005, Page 60 (Recipe by Sarah Hobbs) retrieved from www.taste.com.au

 

Obviously my oven has been repaired.  Oh happy day!

How to Cope with a Hard Day

I felt a bit like this picture after work this afternoon.  Inevitable when one of my students was having a particularly difficult day.  Kinda makes my day difficult too!  My children have been told that I might not be capable of being rational and we'll buy dinner because my arms are too tired to even hold a cup of tea up without support.  I am spent.


Days like today happen.  They're hard, heartbreaking days sometimes.  I cope with days like today because I work with amazing people who work together to sort out the immediate situation.  And then they offer their support as we debrief afterwards.  Our days begin with prayer for what will come our way - today proved they are a necessary part of our shared day.  Without their affirmation and care my work would be that much harder!  And I cope with days like today by recognising that not all behaviour in my students is borne of a desire to simply misbehave.  Sometimes they just don't know how to communicate what they're struggling with or how to work it through.  Frances posted, today, about how gracious her neighbour was in an obviously distressing moment.  I think that's part of the key to coping when things are tough.  Being gracious.  Understanding that people have things going on in their lives that impacts the way they interact.  And knowing that sometimes things happen that weren't intended.  Forgiveness.

I wish I could just sit with my student, give him a big hug and offer assurance that I could make everything better.  And I wish that it would be true.

Community.....

One of the challenges of moving to a new church is chiseling out a new community for yourself.  I have some very particular ideals around what community is within the church and the importance of giving of yourself for the benefit of the whole group.  It's that whole 'body of Christ' thing and being willing to play your part.  Moving to a new church has challenged me - how do I play my part when I haven't figured out quite where I fit....and when I'm not in a position to invest into ministeries during this season of life?

We're enjoying our new church.  We love the teaching, we love the provisions made for all different age groups and the way they intentionally plan to keep people engaged across all the generations.  We love the way our children are encouraged to be involved.  But I've missed close friendships and shared history that you develop over years of worshipping and minstering together with a group of people.  We came to this church knowing it was the right place and knowing that developing meaningful friendships would be difficult - it's a logistical challenge of bigger congregations!

Just as I was missing 'community' within my new church family in a meaningful way we were invited back to a friends' home for a cuppa...which turned into a casual lunch.  These aren't new friends, we've known this family for years and have come to know them better over the last 12 months.  But their spontaneous gift of hospitality was something precious right when I needed it. It was like a little shot of garden fertliser to help me flourish in this new garden.

How do you flourish in the place you've been planted?

Monday Menus and Mayhem

I was just scrolling through my 'from this blog' images.  Those photos are filled with so much stitching has been and gone and I've little time to continue with it these days.  In the last two weeks two different people have asked if I am still stitching and I've said "not at the moment".  Perhaps a little poke to get me stitching again?  Now, while the semester is quiet with only two subjects actually active?  Yes, maybe ....

The upside of no stitching is that I devote my time to weekly tasks and essay writing for Uni and there is beautiful fruit for those labours.  My Dance & Drama assignments came back with a credit and a distinction and my PE assignment was returned to me with a coveted high distinction attached...and glowing praise.  This is the 'work' God has given me to do in this season and while stitching is one of my first loves, it can be set aside for a while.  And while I'm content with my 'work', the stitching does occasionally sing to me longingly!

I need to phone about my oven getting together with a lovely Fix-It Man - the poor things needs the kind of love we just can't give it :(  In the meantime there is a limit to what can be cooked in there.  The lowest temperature is 180C if the oven stays on.  The 180C mark is now just as the oven turns on so it flicks on and off constantly.

Here is the nearly oven-free menu for the week:

Monday:  Crumbed beef schnitzel, vegies
Tuesday:  Tomato & bacon pasta
Wednesday:  Ricotta fritters, vegies
Thursday: Chinese pork spare ribs, rice, vegies
Friday: Vegetable frittata, vegies
Saturday:  Mr Busy's choice
Sunday:  Not sure

I'll crumb my schnitzel with polenta (cornmeal) and use cannellini beans for Tuesday's night's pasta in order to accommodate my growing issues with wheat.  Avoiding starchy carbohydrates like rice and pasta (gluten free, of course) seems to be working well.  I use sweet potato instead of regular and have extra vegies instead of rice.

Enough from me - a phone call to make and a couple of lectures to listen to amid dinner preparation is ahead of me yet.  What's going on in your week?  If you post about your weekly menu let me know where!  I'd love a peek into your plans.

Friendly Fix-It Men & Other Saturday Stuff

We have a new Fix-It Man.  The electrician came early this morning and had our problems with the safety switch fixed in no time.  The rangehood had light-fixture issues - now it doesn't.  The oven will have to get looked at soon.  After next pay day perhaps?  It's nice to know the house won't be inclined to burning itself down.  I am impressed with the electrician too - young man just starting out in self employment and he came on time.  A couple of minutes early in fact.  And he was nice and efficient.  That's important when you're looking for a good tradie.

While Mr Fix-It Man was fiddling around with the range, I was cleaning the bits and pieces he had to take down.  Obviously it hadn't been done for quite some time.  Frances - it only took 10 minutes.  One cleaning job at a time is the only way to clean a kitchen!!!!  I think one a week....but you might go for one a day.

Since then we've been at a working bee day at school.  My golly those days make me feel old and feeble.  I'm thinking it has less to do with me and more to do with the really heavy jobs they put on the list to be completed.  Some of them I just looked at and said "nope, that's not for me".  I felt a bit bad about that, but there were plenty of men looking for things to do.  So I cleaned the tuck shop cupboards (not a pretty job, but a woman was required!), de-cobwebbed the Primary school and cleaned the walls outside the secondary classroom.  I think a good movie or a book with a cosy rug is a good way to recover.  The fog has made the hills behind our house disappear and the rain has started again - definitely a good stay-inside kind of afternoon.

Of Menu Plans and Weird Diets

It's been a little long while since I posted a menu plan.  I wonder where the days fly to when I'm not looking?!  I've been on a little journey with my diet over the past few weeks.  As you may remember I was on a bit of an anti-sugar tangent - well, that continues on behind the scenes for me.  Wheat has been a problem for quite some time and now sugar is a slightly bigger problem than wheat ever was.  It's sad...you know, when everyone else is enjoying the texture and sweetness of a beautiful cake.  But the suffering just isn't worth it....pain is certainly a good prevention tool!  Severe indigestion, foggie head and insomnia are simply not worth it - not even for a hot jam doughnut.  And that is the sadest thing of all!  The happy thing is that my new scales are becoming more friendly.  We might even get to like each other over the coming months.  In any case, my diet consists of a lot of protein and low GI vegies, a small amount of fruit, natural yoghurt and 1 slice of rye bread each day.  A girl has to have just one small vice.  My dessert of choice?  Dried apricots.  They're really quite special when that's the sweet thing you have on hand!  I had about six crackers tonight - my tummy is bubbling.  It was silly...I thought I could get away with it.  Apparently not!

Anyway, our menu is something like this, with some alterations for me:

Monday: Creamy bacon & mushroom pasta*
Tuesday:  Osso Bucco with sweet potato mash
Wednesday:  Out for a birthday dinner
Thursday:  Feta Triangles, roast potatoes, frozen vegies**
Friday:  Minestrone soup
Saturday:  Homemade pizza
Sunday:  Roast pork, vegies

*  I have been having my pasta sauce over rinsed and heated cannellini beans.  A very satisfying alternative to pasta
**  I'm having roast sweet potato & pumpkin and no feta triangles....pastry is not nice to me either.

I learnt the hard way that Chinese is now on my "no-go" list.  I only had meats and vegies but OOoooohhh I was very uncomfortable afterwards!

How do you deal with dietry issues?

In Which the Oven Tries to Die

I have good news and bad news.  The good news is I know what tripped the safety switch.  The bad news is that the rangehood, cooktop and oven all need to be looked at. :(

Our power went off the other day - just the powerpoints.  Very odd, we thought.  I had been fiddling with the light globe in the rangehood at the time, but didn't really put two and two together because we know the fridge is trying to die.  In the process of doing that the oven is doing strange things with its temperatures.  You know, 160C is now near the beginning of the dial instead of in the middle and there is not space between 155 and 165, so it flicks around by 10C.  Strange.  Annoying.

Today I went to light a flame under a pan - the flicker of the self ingnition thing tripped the switch again.  I'm beginning to wonder if this can wait til pay day to get looked at!

The kids are excited about the idea of getting a new oven.  I'm not.  If I had to get a new oven I would want to replace the whole kitchen with a light coloured colonial-facade type of cabinet doors with drawers instead of cupboards.  And a new bench top which is lighter and one I could put hot things straight onto.  I have dreams, ya know?  Nice, budget friendly dreams, thanks to Ikea.  In the meantime a frugal repair job will suffice for now.


And while we're talking about things that don't work - non-stick cookware.  I bought a Scanpan frying pay a few years back.  I love it.  It's a great size and depth, has a handle either side of the pan and goes in the oven.  It's perfect.  But it did not stay non-stick for as long as I'd hoped, despite being careful.  I discovered the ancient joys of seasoning a pan, however.  A little oil and a bit of heat and she's gleaming black and back to non-stick.  But you have to do it every time you use it.  I have to say - I'm a bit disappointed with the grand promises made by Scanpan in regard to the non-stickiness over the long term.

On a good note - still love my mixer and front loading washing machine, which is humming as I type.