That Was Fun

For the last couple of years I’ve had an oil sprayer that you pressurise manually. Pump pump pump and it’s good to go. No nasty propellants, no continual purchasing of tins; just a bit of elbow grease. It’s fabulous. Well it was. Until tonight. I usually pump the top until the air bubbles clear in the feeder tube. That was what I was doing when an almighty bang went off in the kitchen because the bottom blew. Yes. Olive oil all over the kitchen – counters, everything on the counters, sinks, me, Husbands jacket on the chair 3 metres away. I’m not sure that there’s anything that was missed really.

All I can do is thank God the cats weren’t in the vicinity. Then we really would have olive oil right throughout the house (or from @rsehole to breakfast as one might say crudely sometimes here in Oz). I’m surprisingly calm about it all in spite of the clothing losses on my part. 1 long sleeved top, 1 camisole, 1 pair of casual trousers all in the bin. There was just no way they could be salvaged given that there were dinner plate sized oil blotches on them.

So the kitchen has just been wiped down for the third time with hot water and detergent. A more thorough cleaning will wait until the weekend. Even after that I’m sure we’ll be finding oil droplets in the oddest places for the next 12 months.

The cause? I think there must have been a blockage somewhere. That won’t stop me from buying another one. I’ll just be a bit more observant next time.

Sunday Roundup 11/04/09

It’s been a strange sort of a week. I spent last weekend in the garden working hard and of course hurt myself because I haven’t been out there for a while. Ooooo the hammies. Serious pain on Saturday night which lessened somewhat on Sunday but wouldn’t go away entirely. I finally went to the chemist on Wednesday. She advised that it was probably residual pain from whichever specific nerve/muscle I hurt and that it all just needed to be calmed down to heal properly. Three days on Nurofen Plus and I’m all back to normal. Thankfully. My inner drama queen was at full roar wondering about how I was going to achieve all the walking I want to do in Spain.

But back to the garden. I finished laying the edging bricks on what I call the chilli bed. Added soil, compost, gypsum (we have clay soil); watered and mixed it all through the existing dirt. Did the same with the jasmine bed and weeded the rosemary bed. Planted brown onions and seed garlic in the first two beds and mulched well with sugar cane mulch (no wonder the legs were hurting). In the chilli bed I also planted these (click to enlarge):

Spinach you say? No no no. They’re Asian greens. But the label says spinach? Still no; still Asian greens. It might be labelled spinach, it might look like spinach, and it does taste like spinach. But it’s not. You see, Husband doesn’t like spinach but Husband *does* like what I told him years ago were Asian greens :-/. There’s a method in my madness.

Asian Chicken Soup

I’m not a lover of soup as I grew up in tropical North Queensland and we just didn’t eat a lot of it.

Last year however, Husband went to the Doctor for an infected bite or some such and Doc thought it would be a good idea to run some routine tests. Oh dear. Cholesterol level? Out of this world. Not was he was eating at home but those bought lunches were doing some damage. He’s a big man (and that’s just big, not fat) and accordingly he needs a lot of food. So a full meal at lunch every day (usually served with hot chips), a greater than average moderate beer consumption, little exercise and Houston, we have a problem.

So three days a week now he takes his lunch (which I get up early to make). Soup, a sandwich, piece of fruit and something to nibble. Any cook will tell you that there’s just something they ‘don’t do’ or ‘don’t do well’. For me that ‘don’t do’ is soup but this recipe is a gem, especially if you like Asian influenced dishes.

The original is here but this is my take on it which is even easier:

* 450g fresh thin noodles
* 1 tablespoon peanut oil
* 3cm piece ginger, peeled, finely chopped
* 2 garlic cloves, crushed
* 2 small red chillies, deseeded, finely chopped
* 6 cups reduced-salt chicken stock
* 500g chicken breast fillets, trimmed
* 2 tablespoons soy sauce
* 1 teaspoon sesame oil
* 3 teaspoons brown sugar
* 1 bunch baby bok choy, chopped

Chop chicken into what ever sized bits you want or feel like doing. Place oil and chicken in a pan and start to heat. Don’t add so much oil because if the chicken catches a bit it just adds flavour and texture to finished dish. Clean up cat spew and wash hands. Chicken should be browning by now so add garlic, ginger and chillies. More garlic and less ginger because Husband prefers it that way and too much garlic is never enough. Quantity of chillies used open to interpretation on the night: disregard any opinion voiced by Husband. Discuss rugby results with Husband and give pot a stir every so often so it browns but not burns. Add stock, soy sauce, sesame oil and brown sugar and bring to the boil. Turn down to a simmer and float off to PC to check various blogs. Remember that soup is cooking when you go back to kitchen 20 minutes later to pour a G & T. Boil water for noodles, cover noodles with aforementioned boiled water* and pour G &T. Add drained noodles to pot with bok choy**, discover you don’t have any spring onions, say to self ‘who cares?’, simmer for five minutes and you’re done. Contemplate another G & T.

* If you add dried noodles instead of fresh ones then you will have a superb chicken and noodles main meal. The starch in the noodles soaks up the stock. It’s wonderful but definitely not soup!

** You’re not limited to baby bok choy. Try beansprouts, mushrooms, water chestnuts, asparagus etc.

Another thing to note: An Aussie tablespoon is 20ml. The rest of the world functions on a 15ml tablespoon but we just had to be different.

A Yummy Dinner

As I was bringing in the washing the other afternoon, my next door neighbour called out to ask me if I wanted some (home grown) silverbeet. Silverbeet (known as chard in the Northern Hemisphere) is one of my favourite vegetables. Husband doesn’t like it but I knew I had stew in the freezer that he would eat so I accepted readily.

I diced a couple of short rashers of bacon and sautéed them in a non-stick pan. Then added two cloves of minced garlic and some pepper and cooked until the garlic browned a bit. Sliced up about 5 leaves of the silverbeet, added it to the same pan, and cooked until the silverbeet started to wilt. Over the top I poured two beaten eggs and left it unstirred over low heat until the egg mix was cooked. (I don’t like raw eggs: I don’t like partially cooked eggs: I like my eggs DONE.)

Result? One amazing silverbeet-omelette thingy. I know the plate is scratched but I really like these bright yellow, cheerful plates. Until they are no longer with us I refuse to buy other plates.

Vive! España!

Ingredients for Meatballs

So what do meatballs have to do with Spain? Well, on May 3rd I’m away to Spain for almost a month. I’ll be back May 30th and … I’m going on my own. Love, love, love it. Husband doesn’t like the long distance flights and I prefer to travel alone so this suits both of us. I go away alone but I cook for him before I go. Yes, I’m being a ‘good wife’ and cooking for him when he should be able to look after himself, but it works for us. I like to cook, I’m a good cook (also modest, hee) and I like people in my life to be fed well. It’s something I want to do. Good food = I care enough about you to feed you well and I am able to do so.

So:

1.7kg beef mince
1.2kg pork mince
3 carrots, 3 onions, 3 stalks celery, 10 (or so) fat cloves of garlic
pepper, chilli flakes, dried mixed herbs, dried parsley, HP sauce, Worcestershire sauce
breadcrumbs and 3 eggs

All the vegies were whizzed in the food processor and then everything combined. Half the mix was made into large meatballs and half into smaller ones, then both were baked in the oven. Tomorrow I will make gravy for the large and pasta sauce for the small and then freeze both. Husband can then cook rice or pasta to suit.

Mind you, if you think this will make a lot of meals then you are wrong. Husband is tall and large (but not fat) and eats a LOT.

hand included for scale

. The bowl is one and a half handwidths tall.