Quinoa & Roast lamb Salad...

Quinoa is one of our favourite grains/seeds to cook with...
This is the base to a salad that we add what ever takes our fancy at the time...

Quinoa Salad...

1 cup Quinoa
2 cups of chook or vegetable stock... I just add a heaped tsp of Chook stock powder...

½ large cucumber, diced
2 sticks of celery, diced
½ large red capsicum, diced
100g of Danish Feta, diced
10 large sun dried tomatoes, slithered
1/8 cup of the tomato marinade
handful of parsley, chopped
small handful of sweet basil, chopped
½ large red onion, diced finely
¼ cup sliced olives

Tonight we added about 300g of cold roast lamb, diced

Bring the Quinoa to the boil in the stock then reduce to a simmer until all the liquid is absorbed.
Empty into a bowl & leave to cool.
Add the remaining ingredients once cooled & toss well....

We have added tinned kidney beans, julienne carrot, corn kernels as well as left over cooked meats including thinly sliced Sausages... Makes a great vegetarian salad for guests as well due to the Chicken stock powder we use contains no animal products...

Have a great one all...
: )»

Afternoon Update 12/1/11

Left: Back door neighbours...

Right: Lawrence Street North Ipswich...

 Lawrence Street North Ipswich...

 Water level on house at East Ipswich
12noon...

Left: Pine street towards Town Bridge...

Right: Fitzgibbon Street North Ipswich: 1974 level was equal to the guttering on the second last house on right of Pic...

 Fitzgibbon Street North Ipswich

Ipswich flood shots.... 12/1/11

Left: Back door neighbours..


Right: Trampoline floating down the river...


Left :Boat moored to house????










Left: ABC day care ½ way down Lawrence St..






Left: View from Bus stop out front looking over river...








Left: House at east Ipswich on other bank...

Right: Looking to East Ippy from Cnr of Pine & Fitzgibbon st...

Comfort Food...

Made up a HUGE batch of Wontons for Short soup & frying tonight with a couple of BBQ pork buns for dessert...
Wontons...
250g minced pork
250g Green Prawn meat
1Tbsp Soy sauce
1Tbsp Chinese rice wine
1Tbsp Oyster sauce
1 tsp Sesame oil
2 Shallot whites
50 Square Wonton wrappers
Blitz all but the Wonton wrappers into a food processor on high until combined
Place a small tsp of mixture into a wrapper then wet the edge of half the wrapper, fold & seal the edges

Wet one corner of the folded edge then wrap the opposite edge to seal on the moistened corner to form what B calls a "Belly button"...

Place the finished Wonton onto a tray until ready to cook in boiling water for 5 minutes or fry in a HOT Wok/deep fryer until golden brown...

 Left - Boiled               Right - Fried

 


Short Soup...

This is the easiest of soups...
1litre Campbell's Chicken stock
1litre water
1½ Tbsp soy sauce
1-2 tsp Sesame Sauce
3 stalks of Celery, sliced finely
12 large Snow Peas, sliced finely
1 large Kohlrabi, julienned
2 med Banana Chillies quartered lengthways & sliced thinly...

Bring stock, water & Soy sauce to the boil in a pot the simmer
Place desired amount of boiled Wontons into bowl, cover with the veggies
Stir the Sesame oil through soup just before serving
Pour the soup over Veg/Wontons then allow it to sit for a few minutes to heat the veggies through.
Sprinkle the sliced green ends of shallots over the soup....

This was the tastiest Wontons/Short soup combination we have made & is just as good, if not better than any we have bought at a restaurant Me thinks...

Dessert = BBQ pork Buns... These little delights always are a must at any Yum Cha outing along with Egg Custard Tarts...
We have made these before but as Woolworths now sell them they make an all tooooo tempting purchase...





 For munchies afterward we planned to have some Toasted Coconut Rocky road but over did it with the soup & buns...
Rocky Road...

A block & a ½ of Whittaker's toasted coconut chocolate in a bowl over a pot filled with boiling water.
Once melted a cup of Jelly Beans & a 1½ cups of roasted Cashews was then stirred through.
then the mix was spread on a lined try & let to cool in the fridge...


**Wanders off to munch on a small piece of  Rocky Road**

Have a great one all.....
 : )»

RIP Bunny...

We will Miss you...

Our Curtains...

Have had a bit of an easy week here...

Caught up on heaps of Bug squishing in the garden, cleaned 2 bed rooms from ceiling to floor & all bit's in between, spent far too much to see Mega Mind, B☼ finished Koo's home school submission for grade 1 & we have new curtains for our bedroom !!!! 
: )» 

We were supposed to paint our room after a major de-clutter but the weather hasn't been favourable unfortunately...          
 Moo's room still has her old curtains as she wants to re paint it to a more "Twilightish fashion" whatever that means??!!??!?!?!?!?!?

Hope you all have a great New Years...
: )»

Festive foods # 2

These truffles are a version of a recipe found on the Simple Savings website... Thanks Mimi... : )»

Chocolate Peanut Truffles...

1 ½ cups almonds ground fine in a food processor or blender
½ cup of Peanut Butter   (The recipe had Tahini but I had no Sesame seeds or paste so substituted...)
¼ cup Golden Syrup  (The Recipe had ½ cup of Rice Malt Syrup but we had none... Honey could be added as well...)
¼ cup cocoa
1tsp vanilla extract/essence
85g of dates chopped finely in  the processor

Desiccated coconut to roll Truffles in...

-We only have a small processor so ground the Almonds & set them aside in a bowl.

-Next I chopped the dates into small pieces then processed them into fine pieces. 
-Then the ground Almonds, Peanut Butter, Golden Syrup, Cocoa & Vanilla were added back in with the dates.

-This was all processed until the ingredients were combined well.

-A heaped Tbsp of the mix was then rolled into ball, covered in the Coconut, placed into a container & refrigerated for ½ an hour before serving.

Then Enjoy.....

 

Rocky Road...

250g Milk Chocolate
50g Cooking chocolate bits
125g Cashews
50g Raspberry lollies
50g Strawberry Cream lollies
100g Marshmallow Clouds...

- Melt Chocolate in a bowl over a saucepan that has water boiling in it.
- Once Chocolate is melted mix in nuts & lollies.
- Dollop out mix onto baking paper..
Is as easy as that... The next batch will be with Coconut Chocolate, Jelly Beans & Strawberry Creams just for something different...

These are the wonderful treats that B☼ made...
Vanilla Almond Biscotti...
This is a recipe from a Family Circle "Herb & Spices" cook book that B☼ changed slightly...
3 egg whites
125g blanched Almonds that have been toasted in a pre heated oven at 180°C for 4 min.
½ cup Vanilla Castor sugar (If you don't have Vanilla sugar you could just add 2tsp of Vanilla essence to the sugar & mix in)
3/4 cup of plain (all purpose) flour


- Pre heat oven to 180°C
- Grease a 26 X 8cm bar tin & line with baking paper.
- Beat Egg whites in a clean bowl until stiff peaks form then slowly add in the sugar & continue beating until sugar has disolved.
- Add in Almonds & sifted Flour, gently fold together.
- Spread into bar tin & smooth over the surface then bake for 25 minutes.
- Remove from oven & allow it to cool in tin. Once completely cooled, remove from tin, wrap in tin foil & refrigerate overnight.
- Pre heat oven to 160°C.
- Line a baking sheet with baking paper.
- Using a sharp serrated knife, cut loaf into 5mm slices, arrange on tray & bake for 30 minutes or until the biscotti are lightly golden & crisp.
- Remove from oven & allow to cool on rack..... ENJOY !!!

 Candied Peanut...

4 Tbsp Golden syrup
1 Tbsp water
1 Cup White Sugar
1 Cup of Roasted unsalted Peanuts

- Line a baking sheet with baking paper.
- In a large saucepan heat syrup, sugar & water until combined while stirring the whole time.
- Bring to boil while stirring the whole time. Do not allow to burn....
- Then simmer on a low heat for 5 - 10 minutes while stirring the whole time.
- To test if Candy is ready, drop a small amount into a cold glass of water, if it turns brittle it is ready.
- Mix in nuts, empty onto lined tray, spread out & allow to cool...   

Macadamia Crunch...

4 Tbsp Golden syrup
1 Tbsp water
1 Cup White Sugar
1 tsp Bi-Carb Soda (Baking Soda)
1 Cup of Roasted unsalted Macadamia nuts

- Line a baking sheet with baking paper.
- In a large saucepan heat syrup, sugar & water until combined while stirring the whole time.
- Bring to boil while stirring the whole time. Do not allow to burn....
- Then simmer on a low heat for 5 - 10 minutes while stirring the whole time.
- To test if Candy is ready, drop a small amount into a cold glass of water, if it turns brittle it is ready.
- Mix in nuts, then stir through Bi-Carb Soda quickly. Empty onto lined tray, spread out & allow to cool...

All these goodies are going into bowls along with some Kinder Surprises for the kids, Ferrero Rocher's & mini peppermint/chilli dark Chocolate bars...

Due to the heat & humidity we have had to bag most of the treats to keep them fresh until Saturday...

Hope you all enjoy these treats if you attempt them..
Have a great Holiday all....
: )»

Out with the old...

B☼ & I have decided that instead of sitting on our Butts these holidays we will be tackling some small jobs around the house...
Odd Jobs...

We bought the Ikea DIGNITET curtain wire "system" a few years ago after losing to many battles with curtain rods & Venetian blinds...
Love the idea of the system, BUT the clips just wouldn't stay on the wire no matter how we tried to clip the hooks on... Not a good look as you can see... I did try crimping the hooks over but to no avail as the hooks kept "jumping" off...


The other problem was that the old curtain material was rather cheap in price as well as quality... The white backing started to turn to powder & come off after about 18 months... As part of a late spring cleaning I washed the curtains as gently as I could but a lot more of the backing came off... We dipped into the emergency fund  & took a trip around the local fabric stores to locate some suitable material to make replacements for ours & Koo's windows...      


Koo's Windows...

We had had enough of the hooks so decided to put eyelets into the top hem... It was easy enough to put them in & they appear to be able to take a fair amount of weight without distorting the material...

Our curtains will be a bit more involved... We found the material we wanted but needed to buy some triple pass sun block backing as it isn't lined... The cheapest triple pass backing we could find in the size we needed was $13per meter... They also had a discount rack with some white curtain material that had a triple pass backing for $6per meter so I suggested to B☼ that we could use that instead & she agreed...
Shall post the results the results on another post before the weekend...

Have a great one all...
: )»