Day 18 - a barbie

take some top chicken sausages from Bert's
some divine steak, again, from Bert's (with a little soy and worchestershire sauce drizzled over)
thick cut mushrooms
onions

give to Chef to bbq

Make very simple salad with some cos lettuce, halved mini-Roma tomatoes, chunks of cucumber and seeds. Dress with extra virgin olive oil, balsamic, salt and pepper.

Eat.

Fall asleep in child's bed, putting him to bed as collective internet world of Dude, three nights of being woken at.least. three times coupled with emotional messness means sleep is the only answer.

Bec's pasta puttanesca plus...

Just a classic puttanesca (olives, anchovies, capers, chillies) plus fresh, fresh tomatoes from here:


























It started out this way many years ago when the straight puttanesca was too much for the Prof's tender insides. Now I do it whenever the tomatoes are too good to resist.

mtc
bec

Day 17 - Lemony chicken with white beans

After a day of many tears, a lot of stress and many tears once more over myriad things, I made this. It is a Jill Dupleix recipe from the SMH's Good Living and has her name all over it. Her style of recipes are always fresh clean flavours, ease of preparation and maximum taste. This lived up to every other recipe of hers I've ever cooked.

It was d.i.v.i.n.e. and really quite restorative.

2 chicken breasts fillets, halved horizontally
2 garlic cloves, finely sliced
1 tblsp rosemary leaves
3 tblsp olive oil
sea salt and pepper
150ml white wine
400g tinned white beans, drained
2 tblsp mint leaves, finely sliced or torn
2 tblsp lemon juice

Combine the chicken with the garlic, oil and seasonings. Marinate for 15-30 minutes (I didn't have time for this and it was still very tasty indeed).

Drain the marinade into a frypan and, when hot, sear the chicken on both sides.
Add the white wine and bubble for 30 seconds.
Then add the white beans, mint, and lemon juice and simmer for 5 minutes. Add a little water if necessary (I tasted it and added some more lemon juice as I'd just guessed the original quantity).

I served it with carrots, which I cooked for a minute, then added broccoli into the same water and cooked for a further minute, then asparagus added for a final minute. They were a perfect accompaniment.

Day 16 - Quick Crumble

Tonight was chicken corn and rice - I added a clove of crushed garlic to mix it up a bit but no one noticed. Chef added so much chilli oil to his that he couldn't taste anything anyway.

But to herald survival of the week of trial daycare, I made a quick crumble. This comes from the column in the Sun Herald's magazine which makes three different dishes with one major ingredient. I've altered it of course.

1 825g tin of sliced peaches or halved apricots
2 tsp cornflour

Crumble topping from my standard crumble recipe
(Here for those readers too lazy to click:
The crumble
1 cup plain flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
3 tblsp rolled oats
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
Combine all the dry then rub in the butter until it clumps. )

Preheat oven to 200C
Drain peaches or apricots, reserving the juice and placing the fruit in shallow baking dish
Mix cornflour well (I use a mini-whisk) with 1/2 cup of the juice (although last night I used more like 3/4 cup and it was good - it could even be 1 cup to the same amount of cornflour)
Pour over fruit
scatter over crumble topping
Bake 15-20 minutes until juices are bubbling and topping is browned.

Very comforting indeed.

Day 15 - when all you have is dry pasta and a head of broccoli

The title is misleading but I'm too tired and emotionally fragile to care.

Tonight was going to be chicken, corn and rice. Felix cried. He wanted noonoos like last night.

So, spaghetti al'aglio with basil from the garden (and broccoli cooked in with the pasta) it was.

Delicious. And restorative

There was ice cream.

Which I declined as I had bought some Godiva chocolates for me and Chef to share as a token nod to Valentine's Day.

Day 14 - So very tired leftovers of sorts

Tonight was the first day of our trial run at daycare for Jasper.

Just quietly, I feel like the.most. negligent parent for putting my child into care at 4 months. I know this is baloney, but there it is. I feel negligent.

Anyway, the emotional energy expended today, combined with the sleeping issues of the last few nights means tonight I was so very tired I contemplated not eating anything.

Instead, the boys got left over bolognaise sauce on Barilla's Bavette pasta.
I ate pasta with that fake cheap shredded parmesan, butter, salt and pepper.
Chef made his own spaghetti al'aglio with basil and sage from the garden later on.

There was icecream for dessert.

Day 13 - Cumin lamb on couscous

Yes, tardy I know. For those looking at the day posted and the day that Day 13 was. But Day 13 went from being a fun! day at friends to four hours at the hospital.

The lamb fillets were tossed with crushed cumin. This is a direct flog from Bec, albeit with a different protein base. Chef cooked it on the bbq.

The couscous was prepared with a little stock, pine nuts, cracked pepper and mint from the garden. There's a distinct lack of fruit and vege in my cooking at the moment because.we're.broke.

I tasted this at about 11pm on my return from the hospital. Too much cumin, too rare lamb, too dry couscous.

The end.