You Missed a Good One Alex

Right from the moment that Jennifer unveiled her platter of beautifully arranged, colourful, flavoursome, roasted vegetables and we placed them in the oven to finish, it was obvious we were in for a special night tonight. Janice quickly panfried the snapper in butter and served the meal with caper lemon sauce and steamed green beans.

Jennifer's vegetables included whole courgettes coated with beef BBQ seasoning. The cherry tomatoes, still attached to the vine, were sprinkled with rock salt and the kumera had been sliced in half lengthwise, spread with pesto and sprinkled with sliced almonds. They were baked for an hour at 150 dec C.

The whole meal was a visual and gastronomic real food delight.

 By the time dessert arrived Robert and Janice were already two games of crib down. Their spirits were raised by the platter of cheese, crackers, chutney, red pears and rum balls. Janice had made three types of crackers, almond and coconut, rosemary and parmesan and chia, sesame and pumpkin seed. The rum balls were a mixture of dates, raisins, raw nuts, rum and lemon zest rolled in coconut flour. (Use a rough ratio of 2:1 dried fruit to nuts and flavours to taste. Be sure to include a good portion of dates in the dried fruit. Whiz it all up in a food processor and roll into balls. Roll the balls in coconut flour or cocoa or fine chopped nuts.) The feijoa chutney was from the Farmer's Market.

Unfortunately for Robert and Janice, Terry and Jennifer won the next two games as well. This however did not dampen the evening... but Robert and Janice declined the opportunity to make it five losses in a row.

Farewell Favourites

Its Alex's last Sunday with us after three months and we asked what he would like for dinner. He chose salmon and banana split. Janice and Jennifer volunteered to take care of a course each and Alex chose the wine.

The salmon was placed skin down in a baking dish and covered with a mixture of oregano, olive oil, salt and sesame seeds then baked for 20 min at 180 deg C. It was served with rosemary potato wedges, lemon caper butter sauce and braised cabbage. It was a delicious meal!

Jennifer's banana split was built with sliced bananas, chocolate chip icecream, chocolate sauce (dark chocolate and cream), caramel sauce (butter and brown sugar and cream), sliced almonds and decorated with sliced eskimo sweets. It was a delicious dessert!

Finger Lickin'

Jessica's suggestion was a USA dinner - we chose gf KFC - nut and herb crusted chicken legs, coleslaw and mashed potato and gravy. Janice made the crumbs for the chicken using a mixture of  2.5 cups ground hazel nuts and almonds, 3 tsp mixed herbs, 1 tsp oregano,1 tsp extra hot cayenne, 1 tsp herb salt and 1 tsp garlic powder. She then dredged the chicken legs with tapioca flour, dipped them in beaten egg and then in the crumb mixture. These were fried briefly in coconut oil and then baked in a hot oven for 20 min. The coleslaw was made by using the grater blade in the food processor to get the very fine particle size that is reminiscent of the KFC coleslaw. There was a ratio of 5:2 cabbage and carrot with a little white onion added. The dressing was mayonnaise with added salt and lemon juice and a little cayenne pepper. The mashed potato was Terry's usual spiffing smooth creation with extra butter to give that soft KFC texture. The gravy was was left over from the duck roast two days ago - made from the juices and thickened with cranberries and onions baked with the duck.

Dessert was Peanut Butter Cheesecake - from here. Jennifer doubled the crumb mixture to allow for a nice tall edge to the cheesecake and used gf chocolate biscuits. The result was a very rich delicious finish to the meal. As it says on Nigella's website "this dish is not for the faint hearted. Unashamed indulgence, wallowingly so, is what this recipe is all about".

Aimee Chose

Aimee is studying France at school and suggested we have a French themed evening. Robert found two (1 & 2) recipes for Beef Bourguignon and combined them to produce a very tasty stew. This was accompanied by green beans, broccoli and mashed potatoes.

Janice had this recipe pointed out to her by three different people during the week. She decided it was rich and fancy enough to be called a gateaux and therefore was a French dessert. It sure is rich! and very yummy. It was served with whipped cream and some lovely tiny sweet round grapes and the juice and seeds of a pomegranate. It would have looked fabulous with the cream heaped on top and the fruit and pomegranate juice on top of that but one of us does not eat cream and all of us knew we were never going to eat all the cake that night!

Nana and Robert won the second game, Alex and Jennifer won the first.... Grumps didn't win at all that night!

And the dessert was cascading cassata

There were six of us for dinner. We asked a passerby for a theme and she said Italian. So there was a Perfect Pasta Sauce and Cascading Cassata. Janice made the pasta sauce: 500 gm prime beef mince, 500 gm good preservative free bacon, three onions, one huge clove garlic, 3 large portabella mushrooms, two handfuls of chopped celery, and four cans of tomato (2 x basil and 2 x chilli). The first five ingredients were fried in bacon fat and added to the last two ingredients. This was all stewed for a couple of hours until thick and tasty. It was served with penne and gluten free penne and lots of grated parmesan.

There was also a salad of celery, capsicum, pumpkin seeds, tomatoes, avocado and carrot. And vinagrette of balsamic vinegar and olive oil.

Jennifer made the Cascading Cassata by softening vanilla soy icecream and adding sliced mango and ginger to half of it and chocolate flake, cinnamon and chopped almonds to the other half. This was layered in a bowl with a third layer made from softened berry soy icecream with razz cherries and fresh rasberries added to it. When it was turned out the bottom chocolate layer melted and made a sauce that cascaded over the outside of the icecream cake.

The icecream was accompanied by the second harvest of strawberries from Terry's strawberry patch.

The meal was accompanied by Mission Estage Winery 2009 Hawke's Bay Cabernet Sauvignon and Giesen Marlborough Riesling 2010 provided by Alex.

The first game of crib was won by the guests: Chris and Alex.

Burnt BBQ and Burnt Sugar

The first Sunday night bbq of the season: paleo chicken tenders, lamb chops marinated in red wine, red wine vinegar, Alan Donald's honey, cayenne pepper, minced garlic and olive oil, crumbed sausages, sauted potatoes with rosemary and fried portabella mushrooms with onion. And a dish of coleslaw. The boys managed to burn most of the meat on the bbq but it still tasted really good - the chicken was soft and delish and the chops were a real treat.

The dessert genie again managed to produce excellent, flavoursome, soft, creamy, rich, better-than-the-best-chef-at-the-finest-restaurant brulees in two flavours - eat your heart out Gordon Ramsey! Our two grand-daughters really loved their brulees and watched with great interest while the sugar was burnt on the top. All the dishes were scraped really clean.

The Dairy Brulee

The Coconut Brulee

 The first game was won by Terry and Jennifer - and lost by Robert and Alex.

Its enough to make your hair curl

We have had a few dinners out on Sunday evenings lately, some Sundays have fallen on public holidays and were enjoyed with family and Jennifer has a new pair of curling tongs, curly hair and several burnt fingers...

We had vege sticks and mini poppadums to start, with a dip made of a can of cannellini beans, a shot of fish sauce, a couple of tbs of tahini, the juice of a lemon and a slug of olive oil.  The main course was free range chicken butterflied and roasted with a layer of lemon slices laid on top and some paprika and salt sprinkled over that. The potatoes were parboiled, smashed and sprinkled with rosemary and sea salt before being crisped in a hot oven. Jennifer roasted a medley of vegetables including yellow and green courgettes, kumara, pumpkin, spring onions and carrot.

The first game was won by Terry and Jennifer

Dessert was also by Jennifer - a very yummy fresh fruit salad with melon and berries and a sprinkle of frumble.

The second game was won by Robert and Alex - Janice was washing dishes at the time!