Recycling

I bought gluten free soy flakes, apricot and almond flavour, but what it really tasted like was cardboard. Maybe the manufacturers anticipated this, as they had 3 recipes on the box. Thankfully the cookie recipie is much better than the flakes.

Soyflake cookies ( I suppose you can use any type of cereal that you don't want to eat)

3 tbs butter, melted

2 tbs honey, 2 tbs maple syrup , 2 tbs brown sugar but I used 7 tbs brown sugar

1 egg, lightly whisked

Add sugar/syrup to melted honey. Stir in egg. Then add

2 cups flakes

1 cup flour

Any additional almond/fruit/chocolate

Make into cookie shape. They don’t expand by much. Bake 20 min or golden brown in oven preheated to 160C. It says you can make 20 cookies. The first time I tried it my cookies were bite sized so I had more than 20, this time I got 15 bigger cookies. You'll figure it out.

cooking for two

What does love taste like?

Like bacon apparently.

Joe is very fond of bacon, and even more so of the double smoked pancetta I get from my regular butcher down the road. This Serbian couple set up shop 45 years ago and the smoked stuff is to die for. Fried till crisy or just to flavour a soup, both work.

We have also eaten many pizzas, souvlakis, desserts (my killer chocolate and pear muffin), hot chocolates. Joe reckons nothing is better than the Lambs outlet in Northcote for souvlakis, and as for pizzas, the $4 dinner special at the Lucky Coq can't be beat.

For a treat, he made his signature buttered prawns, only this time he added dried coconut and fried it in oil, instead of butter.

He was meant to fly off on Sunday night, the plane had technical difficulties - they had to reboot the flight computer and it still didn't work. So thank you malaysian airlines, for all the wrong reasons, for giving us an extra 60 hours together.

fancy apple pie

I know someone who is embarrassed about saying the word tart in public, even though we are referring to pastries and not the other kind. Anyway this is a tarte tartin, or fancy french apple pie. It came from here and tastes best freshly baked. I could have let it caramelise a bit more but I was late for meeting someone (not the mr-embarrassed-about-saying-the-word-tart) for lunch.

The trickiest bit is flipping the tart out of the pan, which is why this picture was taken over the sink.

Also made a great breakfast - lentils, sliced grapefuit and yoghurt over toast but it doesn't photograph as well as it tastes.

And most recently, baked cherry and chocolate muffins, which both joe and I agree is a keeper. This recipe is not exact, because I don't use measures, so feel free to modify it. It is based on a recipe for friands.

1 and 1/2cups almond meal
1/2 cup wheat or spelt flour
2-3 tablespoons baking powder
125-150g butter, melted over the stove
2 eggs or 3 small ones. You are actually meant to use 5 whites if this was a traditional friand recipe but I hate to waste 5 yolks.
Fresh cherries - pitted. Watch the squirting juice.
2/3 of a 200g block of cooking chocolate, dark or milk if you like.
1/2 cup milk or juice
1 to 1 and1/2 cups sugar - i used a mix of icing and regular sugar.
vanilla essence
dash of port or sweet alcohol

Mix all the powders in a bowl. Add in melted butter, and let it cool before adding eggs otherwise they will curdle. Add in the liquids till you get a good batter consistency, and more milk/juice if needed. Stir in the cherries and chocolate. I think you will get 6- 9 muffins with this, and don't fill the muffins all the way to the top, cos they will rise and leak all over the tray.

what do you eat in a week?

what the world eats in a week - time photo essay. Check out the amount of packaging in the developed world! Then again, I rather have tim tams than boiled fresh sheep soup... maybe lentil would be fine...

you can't say no to chocolate cake

4 great cake recipies at the age website.

frittata

I tried out this recipie

Zucchini-and-Pecorino Frittata
Adapted slightly from Torakris’ recipe on eGullet

3 Tbs olive oil
1 red onion, halved and thinly sliced
1-1 ½ lb zucchini, thinly sliced into half-circles
2 Tbs fresh basil, chopped
6 large eggs (preferably free-range, please)
S & P
½ cup good-quality Pecorino Romano, grated

In a 12-inch nonstick skillet, heat 2 Tbs olive oil over medium heat. Sauté onions until wilted, about 5 minutes. Add zucchini and cook, stirring occasionally, until tender, about 10 minutes. Add basil and remove from heat. Drain in colander.

Crack eggs into a medium bowl and whisk with a fork. Add salt and pepper and cheese, stirring to mix. Add zucchini and onion and stir to mix evenly.

Heat remaining Tbs oil over medium heat. Add egg mixture, using fork to distribute evenly over pan. Reduce heat to low and cook until set, 12 to 15 minutes or so. Remove from heat and slide frittata onto a large plate. Place skillet over plate, and invert frittata back into skillet. Cook a few minutes more. Invert frittata onto plate to serve. Eat at room temperature or cold. Serves 6-8 as a first course or 4 as a main dish.

It worked fine, until the part I had to flip it. Fine, I didn't use a plate, I tried to flip it in the pan. It got stuck, so I ended up with omelette, which is what a frittata is anyway.

the morning after

brown rice with veggies in a tahini and white miso sauce. say ahhhh.
recommended when you've had too much red wine the night before.

quinoa is my favourite thing right now, it is so crunchy when cooked with brown rice. I haven't done it any other way yet, let me know if you have a recipe to share.