Kitchen Kapers Week 11

Monday

Soup Night at the Turner Household consisted of Cauliflower and Bacon Soup.  I found it a bit bland this week, so we had to add seasonings afterwards.

The saving grace for dinner was the Summer Fruit and Coconut Crumble I made. It was delicious, and is really simple to make:

Steps 1 and 2 - chop up your fruit and add to ramekin dishes (or one big casserole dish). I used peaches and nectarines, but you could also use pears, plums, raspberries, strawberries - or whatever. Drizzle with maple syrup.

Step 3 - mix together 1+1/2 cups of shredded coconut, 2 egg whites and 2/3 cup of caster sugar together and put on top.

 Step 4 - Bake in the oven for about 13-15 minutes until brown on top. Serve.

Tuesday

Homemade hamburgers - always popular here in the Turner Household, and must be had with sliced pineapple. Jasmin polished off two burgers and Eliza eats hers without the meat patty LOL! I simply lay all the ingredients on a big platter and people just help themselves.

Wednesday

A write-off, after taking both Dave and Jasmin to the Doctors, we would have been home too late for cook dinner (and got to swimming classes), so we decided to eat at Grill'd in Belconnen. I had the hottest burger, but it was so good.

As you can see from this pic, my crazy Eliza had the chips (I'm sure she was vegetarian in a previous life!). Even the chips are nice at Grill'd.

Jas had a Summer Sunset burger as did Dave - this one comes with pineapple bacon and avocado. I thought I would try one I hadn't before and got the hottest one imaginable - the rest of the family were laughing at me - I'm sure I had steam coming out of my ears! I had the Hot Hombre Burger - so if you are into spicy food, this is the burger for you. It had chili black bean salsa on it and it was reaaaaallllllly hot!

Thursday

Three bananas were on the verge of being thrown out, so put on a quick Banana cake to bake in the morning and covered it with passionfruit icing in the afternoon, the girls and I had some for arvo tea, and then later for dessert after dinner.

A note on greasing pans for baking - if there is a short-cut to be had in cooking, I normally find it! Whenever I am asked to grease and line a pan I never do it - it would mean pulling out the butter, getting out some paper for greasing and then doing the greasing, sounds like too much work to me. Instead I pull out my can of trusty Canola Oil spray and spray the pan. Canola oil doesn't change the flavour of the cake, and it's just so easy to use. This method hasn't failed me yet, so I'll stick to it!

Chicken Pad Kee Mao - the girls love noodle dishes, and it was Dave's fasting day as well. Jazz went back for a couple of serves, and Eliza cleaned her plate up.

Friday

Friday lunch was at the Cafe at Rodney's nursery with some friends. Lovely setting for lunch, and really lovely ladies (the ones I used to work with). It was really nice to see them all, and we are going to catch up next month as well. I had the Thai Fish and Prawn Cakes with sweet chilli sauce. I forgot to take a picture though - double-bummer as I would have liked a picture of the ladies for my project Life Album!

Pizza Night - nothing to see here, move along......

Saturday

Who can resist pancakes for breakfast?  I have a really simple recipe which just needs you to remember to add two of everything - two eggs, two cups of SR Flour (or 1 of plain, 1 of SR), 2 Tablespoons of Sugar, and 2 cups of milk.

Saturday night I cooked salt and herb crusted steak with potato and spinach bake (I received silverbeet in the pack this week). I also served some steamed carrots and blanched asparagus.

Yes, I know, upside Jane!  The upside cider in the picture is worth a mention - it is apple and mandarin cider. The brand is Kirin, and Dave tried this at a restaurant in February - if you like cider it's worth a try.

Sunday

Sunday lunch we met our friend's Mel and Kate for Lunch at Cafe Injoy. It's at Federation Square, and they are always busy, and the food is nice and not too expensive. Jas and Dave always find it hard to go past the Cajun Chicken Dippers, so that's what they had, while I opted for one of the all day brunch options - Potato and Salmon Stack (yum).  Of course, we were conned into going to the lolly shop at Federation Square afterwards!

Dinner - I've been waiting to try this one out - Yellow curry with black rice.  Lately there have been a lot of ads in the food magazines for Sunrice's range of gourmet rices - they are so nicely packaged, and look delicious, so I cut a clipping out of a magazine and made this one.  I selected the ad with the black rice, it had an interesting flavour, quite strong compared to white rice and very unprocessed, it went well with the curry - I only put a fraction of the chili in it, so the girls would eat it (Jasmin did, Eliza not so much).

That ends another week of food in the Turner household. Have I mentioned how much I like food?

Until next time.
Di :-)