Pumpkin Penne

... aka "Experimental pasta #2 (or 3. Maybe 4, 5 or 6.)".

Trying to make something quick and easy, I thought I'd use a can of pumpkin soup as a quick pasta sauce.

I chopped two kransy's and fried them up. I started my penne boiling. In another pot I emptied the can of soup, added 3 Tbsp of both sour cream and cream cheese and about 6 Tbsp of milk. Stir as it heats until smooth. I added a pinch of both paprika and nutmeg.

At the last minute I decided some green in the salad might look nice so microwaved some peas and added fresh basil leaves as well as the sauce and kransy's. Stir to mix. Top with parmesan cheese.

I cooked half of a 500g packet of penne and used half the pot of sauce that I'd made. It tasted fine, the kids liked it, BUT, if you're going to make something similar skip the peas and basil. Add way more kransky (it's really the star of the dish) and parmesan. Toasted pine nuts would be a welcome addition too.

After all that I found something in the fridge that would have been much faster.

Doh.

Tortilla Pizza

It's hot here today (hot for Wellington anyway) and we hardly feel like doing anything. Solution? Tortilla Pizza. They're not as filling as regular pizza, for obvious reasons, but they're just as delicious. Lucky the heat also makes us less hungry.

Using tortilla's as our bases, I topped our pizza with a half/half mix of tomato paste and sauce (to save on paste and to sweeten it), grated cheese (we buy Edam), sliced Kransky sausage (is there anything these sausages can't do?) and fresh basil leaves (if using again I think I'll add after cooking rather than before. The heat from the pizza would wilt the leaves rather than the grill in the oven shrivelling them). Be careful not to overload your little tortilla base. They're nowhere near as sturdy as a pizza base.

Simple, quick, easy, delicious. Perfect.

Midnight Spaghetti 5 (with a twist...)

Tonight I made midnight spaghetti with a few variations:

Wholemeal Spaghetti

The kids always want to try mine when I serve myself the wholemeal and they have regular so I cooked it up for everyone tonight. It seemed to go down just as well as regular spaghetti with them (don't worry Nat I won't do it all the time because I know wholemeal is more expensive).

Kransky Octopuses

Someone I read (also a friend/relative [if you can have a sister-in-law twice removed]) suggested these through a comment on the blog. Almost every comment effects what I cook, so get commenting. Thanks Mika! I decided on these after looking in my fridge for veges that I could add, after Rachel's suggestion, but we didn't have any I thought were suitable. We did have Kransky's though!

Cream Cheese

I figured Kransky's are cheesy so I added cream cheese to the pan after the spaghetti to try and make it a creamy sauce. It tasted fine but if you want to try it I suggest adding the cream cheese to your sauce/frypan before the spaghetti so that it gets all melted and mixed well first.

Tuna Curry

Today was another day where I look in my cupboards and make what I see. (In my mind) Tin of tuna + coconut cream + rice = Tuna Curry. Despite how it sounds it was not the most disgusting thing ever.

After looking through a few recipes I found that most had chopped tomato (check) and chopped capsicum (no check). And they all varied in methods of cooking. Here's what I did.

Tuna Curry

Put your rice on to cook. Oil in pan/wok. Add chopped onions, crushed garlic and tuna. Add salt, pepper, a couple tablespoons of curry powder, a teaspoon of ground coriander and a couple teaspoons of ground ginger (I'm sure chopped fresh ginger root would be better if you've got it). Give it a stir and cook for a couple minutes. Add chopped tomatoes. Add a can of coconut cream and simmer for a bit (maybe 20 minutes) while your rice finishes cooking. Serve with sour cream or yoghurt if you like (the kids will eat almost anything if it comes with a side of sour cream!). Voila!

Note: You don't necessarily have to add any chili to this curry because there is chili in curry powder. Since I added quite a lot of curry powder and left it to simmer for quite a while (chili gets hotter the longer it's heated) mine had a nice little bit if curry bite.

I thought this was pretty tasty, Theo loved it (ate every last grain of rice) and Sadie enjoyed the first half of her dinner and then only wanted plain rice. So I don't know if it's a repeat recipe but it was good for the evening.

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.

Spaghetti and Meatballs 3

I made Rachael Ray's Meatballs again with Ruth Pretty's Tomato Pasta Sauce. I think the Sauce is a keeper. Click on through and take a look.

- I used two cans of chopped tomatoes instead of 14-18 fresh tomatoes. In the future I may use whole peeled tomatoes. You definitely get a different result depending on how you prepare your tomatoes, but it's SO much easier to just open a can and tip it in.

- I didn't have bay leaves. I'm sure the flavour would be a bit different if I did. I used basil a little differently than the recipe calls for.

- I may have over-reduced the sauce.

Breakfast

Quick and easy again, breakfast for dinner. We had scrambled eggs, toast, kransky sausages (frankfurters for the kids. Save the good stuff for people who care), peas and corn.