mosaic road

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

All my life I have hated raisins, till now !! The raisins of my childhood were large, dried up squishy things with seeds and tiny stems that you always ended up crunching on. Muscatels, only seen at Christmas, were also unpleasant wizened up objects that I steered well clear of. I have never wanted to cook with them as chopping them up was such a chore. Now and only in the last 6 months I have discovered an Australian brand of raisins that are fabulous and just perfect for cookies or just munching on. No stems or seeds !! The brand is Freshlife and found in Safeway. These raisins are tiny, like a sultana in size. On close perusal of the packet I have found that that while Freshlife seems to be an Australian company, the dried fruit is from Chile originally but packed here. I have used these well travelled raisins in a very classic and delicious cookie this week.

A Family Favourite

 

I love the way potato salad can easily be a light meal and can be different every time you make it. The way you dress it provides endless variations as does the components. Tonight I used baby Idaho potatoes, tomato and chopped up ham, then loaded it with fresh basil, parsley and chives. I dressed it with mayonnaise mixed with seed mustard. Leftovers, if there are any, can be stretched by me adding avocado, hardboiled eggs and/or cucumber and a whole different meal is born.

Fabulous Chowder

 

I have never made chowder. My soups are always tomato based like minestrone or vegetable but having a child with a severe fructose allergy rules out cooking with tomatoes. I still grow them and use them when cooking for others but I have had to re think a lot of my menus and alter a lot of my standby recipes . So I was delighted to try out something new, Southwestern Quinoa Chowder . It includes corn, diced potato and green pepper with cooked quinoa thickening it up. Risoni type pasta or rice could easily be substituted here.  The colour is a little bland but it can be topped with the condiments of your choice. I added Mexican blend cheese, a dollop of plain yoghurt, sliced avocado and optional diced tomato .

Using Garden Produce

Growing vegetables really helps keep the household budget in check. Currently I have a glut of both basil and silverbeet and luckily both can be easily frozen for the coming wintry months. Of course it is wonderful to go out and pick the leaves and cook them on the spot. Hence yesterday I transfromed a spinach pie into a silverbeet pie. The recipe called for dried basil so back out I went with my trusty scissors and snipped a big handful of basil leaves. The custless pie was healthy and delicious and came at a bargain price.

The Protea

This flowering plant will be well known to most Australians and South Africans. It is sometimes even referred to as the National flower/symbol of South Africa and is also known there as sugarbush. It does well in the Australian climate as it likes full sun and is pretty hardy with woody stems and tough leaves. I have taken some photos of the bunch I was given yesterday  as the actual flower is so unusual, almost feathery to see and touch, quite extraordinary really.

Love My Neighbour

I moved into my current little abode in July. The house next door was on the market at the same time as mine and I nearly bought it but someone else beat me to it and I have recently met my neighbour. Sadly on the whole we all keep very much to ourselves and often don't know our neighbours but I met mine over our joint front fence whilst we were both out watering our vegies. Z is about 30 and has masses of vegetables of all sorts growing in pots even pumpkins and watermelons. What a green thumb !! I discovered he is head flower buyer and manager of a local and fabulous florist in our suburb. I gave him a big bunch of basil to give to his mum and he in turn left a watermelon at my front door and and 2 bunches of Christmas lillies. I dropped over a peanut butter muffin and he left 2 big bunches of proteas on the front mat !! How lucky am I ?? I think I will need to buy more vases for all these floral tributes !!

Finger Lickin Good Chicken

OMIGOD this was delicious plus it uses one ovenproof dish and can be eaten hot or cold. I used three biggish skinless chicken breasts and poured ingredients over the top then  mixed them up and made a sauce. As per usual my amounts were totally inexact but included a cup of tomato sauce or ketchup, a slug of prepared yellow mustard, a smaller slug of seed mustard, close to a cup of BBQ sauce and some brown sugar. Other ingredients like garlic and/or diced onion, woucestershire sauce even chili sauce would go well here. It cooked perfectly in 30 minutes. We ate this chopped into salad when cold and when hot, I diced a larger fillet and it was stirred through rice with a diced green pepper - all good, more than good on fact, downright finger lickin fabulous.

Icebox Mincemeat Cookies

A bit of an unusual name tag but a great cookie nevertheless. These may have bee a bit more labour intensive than my usual melt and mix choices but it was a perfet way to use up the last of the leftover fruit mince from Christmas time. Once the dough is made, it is rolled log form into plastic wrap and frozen. It makes sense as then there is cookie dough on hand awaiting use in the freezer when needed. But I am such an instant gratification sort of person that I get impatient even waiting for dough to freeze. I walked the dogs to fill in freezing time and then sliced the nearly frozen log into cookies , baked them but left one log frozen for a rainy day. I was then able to take warm mincemeat cookies to my co workers - yum !!

No Bake Sultana Balls

Quick, easy, versatile and delicious. The recipe called for dates but I used sultanas. The recipe called for rice bubbles but I used oats as well. Being a one bowl recipe your dried fruit and choice of cereal along with melted butter, brown sugar and coconut all get mixed up together . Then if you have time roll little balls or press into a tin for a yummy slice. The balls can then be covered in nuts or coconut as can the slice. This no bake recipe did not even last 24 hours here proving it's extraordinary deliciousness !! It vanished so fast that my little balls did not even get near a roll in a bowl of coconut !! In fact they do look a bit naked in the photos, not really pretty at all. The coconut is a must for next time.