Not leaving the house!

OK, I may have gone to the neighbour's to "borrow" a bottle of wine.

My husband had to go on a work retreat, leaving me home alone with the tots to feed and entertain them. Entertainment was planting stuff in the garden, but feeding them was another issue. I didn't want to get in the car and go to the store just to buy a few missing ingredients for dinner. That would have meant dressing them up (they have taken to wearing their pijamas all day everyday), brushing teeth, hair and washing the morning's peanut butter and jam off their faces. Instead I turned my attention to what I did have. 

In the freezer I had some chopped veg that I had been saving to make stock and in the fridge a bag of organic sweet bell peppers, (just like me) beginning to show their age. So I pulled the veg out of the freezer dumped some water on them, added a couple bay leaves, salt & pepper, fresh celery (it too was showing its age), some fresh parsley and simmered away! With the peppers, I washed them fired up the BBQ. And slowly roasted them! 


hot n'sweaty

 all fired up and ready to go
 basking in the glory
 a party in a bowl

A roasted Red Pepper kinda day Soup

• 6 capsicum peppers, wash and leave whole
• 1 med onion roughly chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic crushed
• 4 tbsp olive oil
• 2 medium carrots, diced and chopped
• 2 medium stalks of celery, sliced an chopped
• salt & pepper
• 1/4 cup red wine
• 1 28oz can whole peeled tomatoes with liquid
• 6 cups stock, chicken or vegetable (preferably home made).
• 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• balsamic vinegar reduction & olive oil to drizzle (optional but really good)
• grated parmesan cheese

First I made my veggie stock and roasted my peppers. 

To roast the the peppers I grilled them on a medium BBQ, turning and rotating until black and brown on all sides. Set them in a bowl, covered with cling wrap and set aside to steam. Meanwhile chop and prepare the remaining ingredients. After 15-30 minutes (or as long as it takes to get other stuff done), slit the peppers, removing the seeds and ribs, peel the skin and roughly sliced. Set aside.

Heat the stock and keep warm.

In a stock pot heat the oil at a medium heat, add the onions and garlic and sweat with the lid on until tender and translucent. Add carrot and celery again sweat with the lid on until just barely soft. The goal is not to brown them, but some of the smaller bits may get some colour. Salt, add roasted peppers, stir and heat through, add red wine and scrape any bits that may have stuck to the bottom. Add tomatoes and liquid stir and bring to a boil. 

Add in warm stock and return to the boil, once at a boil turn down and simmer for 30 mins or until everything is falling apart and the tomatoes are breaking up. Cool down and transfer to a blender or use an immersion blender and combine until smooth. Return to heat. Add in Balsamic vinegar and taste for seasoning, adding salt and pepper if needed.

To serve Drizzle with the fancy shmancy olive oil and reduced balsamic vinegar... as I did for the adult version or for the kids version microplane parmesan cheese on top! Or just do it all, slip and slurp crusty bread and have a fresh cucumber salad!

While I was taking my photos my daughter insisted I take on of her fork!

                                     Kid version!








photos by me...

A gift that stings...

Him: Here, the guy at the market was selling these.
Me: Thanks I will get my gloves.

My sweet husband has been utterly consumed by writing his thesis: PhD in Neuro Science, but that isn't necessarily what he does. Another one of those long stories. Regardless his brain has been very left sided lately. So it was kinda nice that when saw some stinging nettles he thought of me and not how the the stinging mechanism works.

To follow a Stinging Nettle & Ricotta Ravioli to die for: photos by me.

The ordered nature of nature.

My husband recently confessed to me that he doesn't like cauliflower. What?! Almost 12 years of marriage and I didn't know this. What is he going to think when I put this on the table for dinner tomorrow night? I like pushing the boundaries just a little bit and am proud to say he will now eat mushrooms and tomatoes. Crazy times, I know. As small as these achievements are I will take my daring where I can get it- Kids kick my ass.

When I was 20 yrs old, it would never have occurred to me that I would find a vegetable this outstanding or that I would get pleasure from convincing my husband (married no way - not for me, ever!) that mushrooms are not slimy toadstools and tomatoes are more than projectiles.


I love how a seemingly random object has order and structure, and that it makes sense. Called Romanesco cauliflower or broccoli,  originally hails from Italy and can be prepared similarly as one would cook a cauliflower. Now, what, am I going to do with it? 


photos by me.

Let me introduce my new sous chef.

My husband treated himself to an iphone right after he got himself a new ipod touch so guess who inherited that? Yup thats right, and I sent my new nano off to a sister in-law.  I never really got what was the big deal. I only used my nano for music on plane trips (average once a year), listened to podcasts of yoga classes at relatives houses and kept a handful of baby photographs for the curious. Other than that I didn't know where it was half the time.  


So when my husband gave me his barely used touch (less then a week old) he introduced me to apps. Oh my god, how did I live with out this technology before? Sometimes when I need a quick recipe idea I turn the ipod on and voila. I still don't use it for music, but now I cook with it.