The Joy of Cooking

 I made this delicious pumpkin and quinoa pilaf the other day. For some reason, when I look at a recipe and see that I have all the ingredients in my kitchen, I feel very excited, very grown-up, very accomplished. For this recipe though, I didn't have chicken stock...but wait...I had a chicken carcass in the freezer (thanks to Seiji) and I made chicken stock for the first time in my life (lazy man's version - boiled for one hour instead of four!). Tres satisfying using my own stock and home-grown parsley to

make this dish (recipe below).

Do you like my food styling? I find pictures of food a bit boring, so have decided to spice these ones up with le bebe and some kitchen objects.
Meet Luka - no, I'm not actually feeding it to him - except, well, indirectly.

Here you can see "Energy Slice" - an absolutely delicious combination of dried fruit and nuts that is perfect for morning or afternoon tea - I think this one is the secret to my producing copious amounts of breast milk and the subsequent size of Luka ; ) This slice is not for people who like recipes that say "crush a packet of bsicuits and combine with a tin of condensed milk, press into tin, cut into pieces and eat". If you are one of these people, you will definitely  find this slice a little bit too wholesome ; ) Recipe below. You can see groovy traditional Russian matryoshkas style measuring cups to the left. These can be purchased here (and yes, I am connected with the seller - she's my sis ; ) ).
 This is our vege garden. I love pictures of people's gardens, and especially the harvests they get from them (like this lady in Hokkaido).

Thanks to having this garden, I have been having salads with no less than 13 different herbs and veges - YUM.

From top to bottom, you can see
- parsley
- thyme
- tomatoes
- carrots
- basil
- lettuce
- spinach

 
Rai, our local Masterchef, is creating a "fruit salad" (his words, not mine) on our new chopping board. I actually bought the board for chopping fruit (I'm sick of my oranges tasting like onions), so technically shouldn't be chopping the greens seen here.  I guess the tomatoes are okay though....or are they? The debate continues...


Recipes from "THE YUMMY MUMMY" by Nadia Holland

Quinoa and pumpkin pilaf

1 cup quinoa, rinsed in water
1 tbsp olive oil
1 red onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1/4 pumpkin, cut into 2cm cubes
500 ml chicken or vegetable stock
1/2 cup parsley
100g feta for topping (optional)

Heat oil in a medium-sized saucepan. Saute the onion, garlic and pumpkin for vie minutes. Add the quinoaand saute a further 2 - 3 minutes. Add the stock, bring to the boil and simmer for 15 - 20 minutes, until the liquid is absorbed and the quinoa is translucent.  Stir through chopped parsley.
Serves 4 - 6 (although I managed to scoff it all for lunch and dinner by myself).

Energy slice

1 cup oats
1 cup wholemeal flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup dried fruit, chopped (anything goes)
1 cup nuts and seeds, chopped
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup trim milk

Mix all dry ingredients together, add the milk and stir to combine. Press into a greased tin (any size, width etc is okay, just cut the final result into 24 pieces), and bake for 20 - 30 minutes, until firm to the touch and slightly browned on top.  Cut into 24 pieces and store in an airtight container.


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