Fresh Terakihi fillets with homemade chips and salad

... a la Nat. He's great at this meal.

Zinger Burger, Zinger, Zinger Burger

*Blush* Honesty's the best policy, right? I felt like I deserved it.

Chicken Drumsticks

a la Jamie Oliver. Cooked with potatoes, tomatoes (meant to be cherry tomatoes), garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper and chili flakes/chopped chili. And there are meant to be basil leaves, I used dried basil. Really you shouldn't make that substitution unless you absolutely have to. So simple and so delicious!

We had some other veges as well but they were freezer veges and didn't look good on the plate, so didn't make it into the photo shoot.

Corned beef hash

Potatoes

Corned beef (from a can)

1 egg

1/4 cup milk

3 Tbsp mustard

Salt and pepper

Boil and mash potatoes. Add the remaining ingredients and mix well. Fry in oil or butter in a pan in patties until you've got a nice brown on each side. Done!

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Pretty easy really, it's all to taste. But that's what I use to bind it together. We had this with brocolli and tomatoes on the side, but it would fit with almost any vegetables. We also eat it with tomato sauce and mustard.

Steak and chips 2

We actually had KFC for dinner tonight. But it's pretty much impossible to make that look good, and I'm quite embarrassed about it actually (even though it was real tasty). Here's steak that Nat made sometime last week served with roast cherry tomatoes, chips, brocolli and bread.

Delicious!

Birthday Dinner!

This is the table before half the food was out. I was more taking pictures of the cakes. But yes. This is what we had for dinner tonight.

Party food. It was great.

Fish and Chips

Sorry, no inspiration today.

Rachel's Roasted Sausages

We had sausages tonight, cooked in a way inspired by Rachel's comment on my last post.

Roasted Sausages

5 sausages

2 large potatoes

2 onions

5-10 cloves garlic

2 roma tomatoes

Generous drizzle olive oil

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

1/2 tsp paprika

1 tsp tobasco sauce

1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

Preheat oven to 200 degrees Celcius. Slice sausages diagonally into 4 pieces each. Slice potatoes in half and then into wedges, skin on. Peel and slice onions into wedges. Peel and slice garlic cloves in half. Quarter the tomatoes. Toss all in a roasting pan.

Drizzle with olive oil. Season with all the seasonings listed. Mix with your hand in the pan until all pieces are well coated.

Cook for 1/2 an hour, remove from oven and turn with a large spoon. Cook for another 15-30 minutes until all the potatoes are cooked.

(The mix, sans potatoes, which I put back in the oven for a few extra minutes.)

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I served this with a salad and really liked it. Thanks Rachel! I'll be doing this again. Hopefully I'll have some capsicum (what we call bell peppers in NZ) next time to toss in as you suggested as well.

Steak and chips

Nat cooked himself another perfect steak tonight. And he made those shoestring fries himself, from potatoes. Pretty impressive.

Bangers and Mash

Saucy sausages (like devilled sausages but without the apples pretty much) from an Alison Holst recipe with mashed potatoes, peas and corn. Nothing special.

What do you do with sausages? Tonight while eating dinner I said to Nat "How do you make them taste good?".

Any ideas?

Herb Crusted Lamb Rack

Nat made Gordon Ramsay's lamb rack tonight with fancy potatoes and balsamic shallots.

For Christmas he voiced that he would love to go shopping for delicious treats and not have to worry about what it cost or having to provide enough for the family. So his parents gave him Moore Wilson vouchers and they are just his. The lamb rack was one of his Christmas treats. He did let me have a taste. It was delicious. So tender and flavourful. DELICIOUS I TELL YOU.

Chicken legs

Tonight we had chicken drumsticks with potato, tomato and basil. You're meant to add garlic as well but we're out. Served with rice and salad. It's easy as. Ours was a bit overcooked, so hopefully yours wouldn't turn out as dark (read: charred).

I know you don't need potato and rice in the same meal, but our family (stemming from my husbands side) seems to need it that way.

Chicken legs with potato, tomato and basil

6-8 large chicken legs

olive oil

salt and pepper

a handful of basil

2 big handfuls of cherry tomatoes, halved/4-6 large tomatoes quartered

6 garlic cloves (we use a whole bulb)

chili finely chopped

3-4 large potatoes, chopped

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Season chicken with salt and pepper and put in a large roasting pan. Add chopped potatoes and cherry tomatoes (or chopped large ones like ours) whole peeled garlic cloves, chopped chili to a large roasting pan. Drizzle with olive oil. Mix around a bit with your hand. Cook for 1 1/2 hours, turning potatoes and tomatoes and adding basil leaves at halfway.

Spaghetti and Meatballs 2

I made Rachael Ray's meatballs again tonight. It's a winner recipe (stay away from the sauce though). Served with our tomato and basil sauce through spaghetti, also over mashed potato which was nice too.

Also delicious home made dinner rolls. Yum. I can't stay away from these.

Christmas #1

Can you believe I forgot to take my camera to Christmas dinner? The first of two: with Nat's family. We'll by with mine Christmas day this year. Nat says no one wants to read this if I don't have a picture, but for record keepings sake:

Afternoon nibbles:

Flavoured nuts and seeds

Corn chips and rice crackers with fresh homemade guacamole

Men shaped shortbread cookies

Fresh cherries

Dinner:

Roast pork (with perfect crackling)

Apple sauce

Gravy

Rice

Roast potato, kumara, pumpkin, shallots

Bok Choy

Fresh garden salad with dressing

Drinks:

Red sparkling grape juice

Water

Dessert:

Pumpkin pie (my mother's recipe)

Whipped cream

Apple pie

Custard

Vanilla ice cream

Supper (intended for entree but forgotten till later):

Butterflied prawns on soft fresh lettuce

To finish:

Red sparkling grape juice

Truffle chocolates

And just so you know there were only four adults (Nat, me and his parents) and two children (2 1/2 and 10 months) at the celebration today. We really ate to celebrate.

A Lazy Friday Dinner

First course:

Peas and corn from the freezer.

Second course:

Fish/sausage/hot dog/spring roll and chips depending who you are (Nat, Theo, Sadie, me).

Course 2a (I was the only one eating it):

Gotta love leftovers!

Silverside

Tonight was my first time ever making a Silverside. And actually I ran out of time to prepare it and then went out for the afternoon, so Nat made it, but I put the veges in and drained then served it all up on plates so it kind of feels like it counts.

Roast lamb 4

Big leg of lamb at the in-laws tonight. Sides of roast potato and kumara, rice, courgette and onion topped with cheese, peas and gravy.

Dessert of apple pie and vanilla icecream.

Sorry no photo.

Potluck

We went to a potluck dinner at our church tonight. Must to my dismay I forgot the camera (read why I was so upset about forgetting the camera here). There was too much food to list and remember, but what I ate was carrot, cucumber and capsicum sticks and brocolli florets with hummus, ommelette, burritos and maybe more I can't remember. And the kids had chips (like fish and chips type chips) and sausages and beans (oh yeah I had some bean salad), and probably more I'm forgetting.

For dessert, of the selection I had some South African milk tart and oatmeal chocolate chip cookie. Theo had cake. There was also icecream. And Nat had pavlova.

Tons to eat. Sorry for no photo.

And sorry for the late post!

Roast lamb 3

Sunday roast of lamb with roasted potatoes, kumara and shallots. Sides of rice (slightly curried) peas and asparagas with parmesan. And plenty of gravy.

It was all exceptional, but the star of the meal tonight was the dessert; Nat made chocolate fondants. It was his first time trying a fondant. The chocolate was only 40% instead of 70% cocoa solids and he used mugs in lieu of ramekins, but they turned out delicious! He got a photo on his parents camera, I may be able to update in the future. But it was just great! Success on his first try!

Spring broth and Terakihi

We ate at Nat's parents place tonight. My father-in-law made a delicious spring broth today that we had to start. It's a broth made with a whole chicken and then a mountain of fresh baby spring vegetables: peas, radish, fennel, celery, carrots, potatoes and probably more. It's delicious.

Then we had fresh terakihi fillets lightly floured, with homemade fried chips and a wholemeal sour dough, parbaked that you finish at home.

A delicious, light, spring meal!

(Sorry no photo)