Sunday night supper club: Spinach, prosciutto and cashew salad

One of my mum's friends gave this recipe to her a few years ago and it's a great salad.

We actually had it at a little BBQ we had on Australia Day, but it also works really well as a light meal - especially on a hot summer evening with some crusty bread.

The secret is in the dressing, which is really half the salad by itself.

You mix together:
2 diced roma tomatoes
2 diced hard boiled eggs
1/2 diced red onion
1 diced avocado
2 cloves garlic
2 teaspoons dijon mustard
2 table spoons white wine vinegar
1/4 olive oil
1/2 teaspoon sugar

Let the dressing sit in the fridge for about an hour and then add it to your salad of baby spinach leaves, crispy prosciutto and cashew nuts.

Fail

I never sew anything for G, because really what do you so for a man.

But before Christmas I decided I would make him some PJ pants to go with his present.  He likes knee length PJ bottoms - I figured I could do that.  So I snuck a pair of his out of the washing to draw a pattern from and I cut out the fabric.  And that's as far as I got.

So I decided this weekend I would finish them...

And I totally love them, they are even finished neatly since my Grandma gave me her overlocker. Small problem though, they don't fit. Not really even close, he can't get them over his bum. Nice one me, I don't even know where I went wrong. So now I'm going to try and pass them off onto someone else :)

I think the only other thing I've ever made for G was also earlier this year.. he got a Kindle for Father's Day and he wanted a cover for it.  So I made one (took me about 5 months to get around to it), and I always end up making that kind of thing too big so this time I made my measurements a bit tighter.  It didn't fit either.

What's going on??  G thinks I subconsciously don't want to make anything for him.

Project stash reduction

Yay!  I finished something and it was from the stash!  Well, I think you can call it that.

I bought the backing fabric and the kokka trees fabric a few years ago with the intention of making a little quilt for the couch but they have been sitting in the fabric stash ever since.  Plus the rest of the fabric in it was all from the stash, so I'm counting it.

Not really colours I usually pick but I think I like it for that reason.  It feels kinda 70s to me, but that could be because my mum's kitchen was that green colour in the 70s. 

I did the binding on machine and it's particularly dodgy, so don't look.

The fabric on the back is from Ikea.  I bought it intending to make it into a quilt, although at the time I thought I might hand quilt around some of the flowers.  Yeah right, then it wouldn't be finished until 2021 (like Matilda's quilt which is forever ongoing).

And currently it's living in its summer home on the shelf, because we're not likely to need a blanket around here to snuggle under for awhile.  However, it has already been used as a tent to hide from the bears in and as a hospital bed, so who knows.

Today I...

Made chocolate cupcakes for my Grandma's birthday and made binding for my couch quilt.

Meanwhile.. Matilda pulled out all the fabric on my shelves to make beds for her dolls who were all very sick and had to rest after their visit to the hospital (which involves everyone getting sticky tape bandages).

And Polly apparently learned how to climb stairs.

I learned that I will never have a clean and tidy house (I will have forgotten this lesson by tomorrow and will continue to live in the hope that one day I will) and that I need to get my stair gate thingy out from the cupboard it's hiding in.

I also learned that this recipe for chocolate buttercream is really yummy.

Sunday night supper club: One pan fish curry and jasmine rice

My brother likes to fish, a lot.  When he visits he often brings some fish for us and in the past week he bought us some dolphin fish or mahi mahi.

I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it so I started to flick through my recipe books and found a recipe I'd cut out of a magazine awhile ago, for one pan fish curry and jasmine rice.   I think the recipe is either from Delicious or Donna Hay, not sure anymore.

It hits all the boxes for me - simple, yummy, Matilda eats it.  Plus it has the added bonus of only using one pan, less washing up is always a winner.   It's going on the dinner rotation for us.

So here's the recipe, in case you want to give it a go.

One-pan fish curry and jasmine rice

20g butter
1 tblsp olive oil
1 onion, thinly sliced
1 teasp finely grated ginger
1 cup jasmine rice
1 1/2 cup water
150g fish fillet, skin removed
1/2 cup coconut milk (I used light for all the difference that would make)
1 tblsp red curry paste (I used yellow because it's not so hot and I wanted Matilda to eat it)
3 green onions

Heat a large non-stick frying pan over high heat.
Add the butter, oil, onion and ginger and cook for 1 minute.
Add the rice and stir for 2 minutes or until the rice is coated with the oil and butter.  Add the water and bring to the boil.
When tunnels form in the rice, place the fish on the rice.  Combine the coconut milk and the curry paste and pour over the fish.
Reduce the heat to low, cover with a lid and cook for 7 minutes or until the fish is cooked through.
To serve, top with green onions.

Serves 4.

Mine actually looks more dry than the one in the magazine photo, but i think that's because after the 7 minutes cooking time was up it sat there for about another 15 minutes while we got Polly to sleep.

Still tasted yummy.

If you would like to join in and share something yummy you've eaten this week, just add your name to the list.

Work in Progress: Couch quilt

I have a quite a large pile of fabric set aside to make certain bits and pieces that has now been sitting on a shelf for at least a few years. And it just keeps getting bigger.

I am determined to get some of those little projects finished this year. That's not to say I'm not allowed to keep adding new ones to it though.

So I started one of them yesterday - a little quilt for our couch.  For watching TV in the colder months, and for hiding under with Matilda.

Japanese Tana

I went to Spotlight yesterday with my sister.  She needed something for school (she's a teacher) and if someone wants me to go along to Spotlight with them and help me look after my two girls at the same time, who am I to say no?

They have some fabric there called Japanese Tana, which I'm guessing is a subtle hint to let you know it's meant to look like Liberty fabric.  It is pretty, I bought some for Matilda.  I'm planning on making this top with it.

I bought Girly Style Wardrobe years ago, before I had kids when I was just new to blogging.  I have never made anything from it, so we'll see how we go - I am hopeful, but I also haven't started.

And do you like my lovely new (to me) stool?  My Grandma gave it to me.  I am not sure what I'm going to do with it yet... some plants on it in the bathroom?  Or maybe a bedside table?

Sunday night supper club

I was reading this magazine the other day and in one of the letters from a reader they were talking about how they used to meet up with friends on monday night and share a meal and take a photo of any particularly memorable ones.  And that got me thinking.

I love cooking and baking and I generally read a lot of food magazines and cookbooks but that doesn't stop it being hard to think of something to cook every night for dinner.  So I thought it might be a good idea to start an online Supper Club.

I'm thinking that every Sunday anyone who wants to participate can post a photo of a dinner they have had in the past week - it could be out a restaurant or something you have made.  You might want to include a recipe or you might not want to but it would be nice to share some ideas. 

So to start with this was our dinner on Friday night, some of my family were over and this is our easy and tasty last minute BBQ stand by.  It often just involves grabbing whatever you can find but on this occassion we had lamb cutlets barbecued seasoned with a bit of this,  salad with rocket, sweet potato, semi-dried tomato, olives and pine nuts, cucumber with lemon, bread, turkish bread with hommus and beetroot dip, chorizo and a little bit of haloumi.  Its a good summer dinner that you can just pick little bits and pieces of whatever you want.

And to finish, a homemade choccy ice-cream using my Grandma's recipe (below).  I  loved these ice blocks as a kid and they do live up to my memory of them.  They are chocolatey but still icey so they are refreshing.

Chocolate Ice-blocks

3.5 cups milk
3/4 cup sugar
1 desert spoon arrowroot dissolved in 3/4 cup water
1 desert spoon cocoa dissolved in 3/4 cup water
pinch salt
teasp vanilla

Bring milk to boil, add sugar, then arrowroot and stir well, add cocoa.  Boil for a few seconds.  Remove from heat and add vanilla.  Cool before pouring into moulds and freezing.
It makes about a dozen paddle-pop sized ice blocks.

Anyway, let me know if you'd like to join in and I'll make a link list and add your names to it!

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson

It's been ages since I've read a book properly.  Probably since before Polly was born.  It feels so good to be reading again and this was the perfect book to get back into the grove with.

I was given this book for my birthday by one of my Auntys who also loves a good read and I really did love it.  I read most of it when I was down the beach for a few days last week but when I got home I couldn't put it down and had to keep going to finish it - Matilda and Polly bored running around the living room pulling absolutely everything out of the shelves while I read.

I don't mean this to sound as bad as it's going to, but who knew a love story between two elderly people could be so lovely.  Add it to your lists people!

Flooding in QLD

It's been such a bizarre couple of weeks, it feels like months.

Only a few days ago we were hanging out at the beach, doing a whole lot of nothing.

Then we come home and have the most massive amount of rain (last Tuesday) that I can remember in a long time.

This is the park down the bottom of our street a few hours after the rain had stopped. There's usually a trickle of water in the little creek about 2m under the bridge.  In the middle of the rain, the water was nearly up to the top of the handrails.  Around lunch time I got a call from G, his office in the CBD was being evacuated along with hundreds of other people in the city.

And then of course, everyone knows what happened in Brisbane and Ipswich after that. Such devastation - and the Lockyer Valley. Just so sad and so unbelievable.  But in some ways it has been amazing, the community spirit and volunteers have been incredible.  I like this article about it.

Luckily we live in an unaffected area of Brisbane so we have been fine but, I think like everyone, we know people whose house was flooded up to it's second story room and others who just had the basement of their apartment buildings flooded.   We have done a little bit to help out, I have been doing some baking and sent it off to some of the affected areas but there's a long road ahead.

In the middle of it all was G's birthday and he was home from work as no one could get into the CBD, but it felt a bit odd to be celebrating.  The four of us ended up having a little party at home.

So who knows what the next few weeks will bring, G is back to work on Monday so in a way it will be life back to normal for us but we'll be looking for more opportunities to volunteer our time and anything else we can to help out the clean up and rebuilding that I guess will be going on for a lot longer. 

In case you haven't seen them and want to help, here's some links for you.
Baked Relief
QLD Premiers Fund
Make it Perfect auction
Fight the Floods
Brisbane City Council volunteering
Volunteering QLD
And there are so many others..

Christmas and New Years

Well, Santa came and did his work.  He may have gone a little overboard in fact, but that's ok... G and I both have big families so the girls got totally spoiled from everyone.

The girls got into their Christmas stocking first thing.  Wearing their special Christmas pjs of course.  I must say, Christmas is much more fun and exciting when there's  a 2 1/2 year old in the room who really 'gets' it for the first time.

I finished making Matilda's nightie on Christmas Eve.

Then, after a little brekkie it was time to get on with the present opening.

After that marathon effort we headed to my mum and dads for a fairly quiet lunch and then on to my aunty's house for the big family Christmas night.  So tired by the end of it, but so much fun.

Boxing Day 2010 we no longer speak of in this house because we sat on the highway (carpark) for four hours on our way to visit my Grandma in hospital in Caloundra (normally a 1 hour trip).  With two grumpy girls and one grumpy husband, fun for the whole family.

And apart from that we've just been hanging out.  Spending time at home, playing with new toys and at the beach to welcome in the new year.

G is back to work today so reality is kind of seeping back in but I think there'll still be a few more holiday beach trips yet so it's not all bad news. 

Happy 2011 everyone!